The Misadventures Of Young Cities
by LizCrazy
Summary: Moscow, Minsk and St Petersburg are growing up to live...Interesting lives to say the least. Creating all kinds of chaotic scenarios for their family and anyone around to deal with. Sequel to 'Union State of Russia and Belarus'. Warnings: Incestuous marriage, possibility of strong language. Hence the T rating.
1. No Matter What

Time did not stop, but the change it usually caused seemed to have. The World was established, the ways of its people and the borders of its Nations more or less totally set.

But those who have lived long enough to remember a time when the World was constantly in motion, ever-changing and unpredictable, would be able to know that it is never truly still. And that history repeats itself.

The changes were smaller now, Cities, not Countries, grew and changed. But to some, this was a big part of their lives. To the Personifications of those Cities, for example. And for the Nations that came before them, who now watched history repeat. Those Nations, who had lost their parents and had to make it on their own, _were_ now the parents and had to decide if they should sit back and see what their children made of themselves or if they should stand by their sides.

For the fiercely protective, clingy Representative of Belarus, that answer was obvious. She didn't remember her own mother, so she was going to make _damn_ sure she was always there for her children. Even as they grew up, and they _were_ growing up, more than she cared to admit.

Her eldest daughter, Moscow, better known to her mother by the Human name of Nastasya, was already an adult, well past the point at which her physical ageing at pretty much stopped altogether. Physically, she was about 19, the same age as her mother, and almost exactly like her, which could cause some confusion. Both women had long, platinum blonde hair, though Belarus's was longer, reaching down to around her waist while Moscow's rested in the middle of her back, and dark indigo eyes, pale skin and, more often than not, a deadpan expression.

Belarus was reminded of herself in many ways when she was around her daughter, and in some ways, it scared her. But her life had turned out so much better than she had expected it would, so she imagined her eldest would be okay. The Muscovite was already becoming self-sufficient, after all, and technically had her own house in her home City now, although she seemed in no hurry to move out and was always making the journey to the City outskirts to hang around her childhood home.

With her siblings...The Belarusian conjured the image of her younger children up in her mind. Her middle child, and own Capital City, Minsk, who went by the name of Inna, was roughly fourteen physically now, and it showed. She was, as her younger sibling would mercilessly taunt her by chanting, a 'moody teenager'. Belarus had hoped that her children, as Personifications, would skip the obnoxious puberty stage Humans went through. But Minsk's lilac eyes were usually either narrowed in unexplained rage, usually directed at her innocent father, Russia, or full of hormone-induced tears.

Cutting off that annoying train of thought, the mother moved on in her ponderings of her children. Well, at least the baby was alright, right?

But no, the 'baby' was _not_ necessarily 'alright.' One problem with her young son, Saint Petersburg, or Ilya, was that he wasn't her little baby anymore, he was eight and getting too big to listen to her by default, which frustrated her. The second, much _bigger_ problem was that her little boy had decided somewhere along the lines that he was a little _Prince_ and had his sights set on World domination.

She didn't mind that so much...It was nothing her husband and Beloved Big Brother hadn't tried before, she had always supported him and besides, she encouraged ambition in her children. But she couldn't help wondering if just _perhaps..._ She spoilt him a _little?_

No, she was just being a loving parent, she reassured herself. Ilya would grow up to be a wonderful young man, of course he would, when he was so much like his father, with his violet eyes and ever-present grin. Nastasya, her oldest child, was already a capable young woman who, despite her stoic attitude, was both beautiful and hard-working, often helping her father carry out his duties as a Nation. She was, even now, away on a business trip on his behalf, representing him as his Capital at a meeting in France.

And Minsk...Well, stubborn young Inna refused to be similarly helpful as a Capital, didn't get along with her father at all, a trait Belarus had hoped she would eventually grow out of, and was just generally difficult to deal with a lot of the time. But she loved her little Capital no matter what. Natalya Rusovna Braginskaya, Belarus Personified, had vowed from a very young age to always love and defend her Precious family, be it her Beloved siblings Russia and Ukraine, or her Dear children. Because she had struggled through a hard life and her family were the few who had loved and supported her, fully understanding.

She had kept to that vow for years, decades, centuries, possibly even millennia, though she had lost track of the time now. And it had helped her achieve her dream, of being in a Union State and marriage with her Big Brother Ivan, of having her babies with him, and surviving her where her own parents had not. So she would keep it still, and support her children, even as they began to slowly turn into adults, no matter what challenges misadventures they might throw in her face along the course of their progress on their path to adulthood.

Natalya smiled slightly to herself and rose up off her bed where she had been sitting, wrapped deep in these special thoughts, for a while now. It was oddly silent downstairs now, and so she decided it was up to her to go and check one such misadventure hadn't occurred. And deal with it accordingly if it had. She might well have to separate an angry Minsk from her smug, tormenting little brother _again._ And no doubt scold the childishly warring siblings yet _again._

 _But she would always love them, no matter what misadventures were to come from the young Cities._

* * *

 **Author Note:**

 **This contains inaccurate facts, Headcanons, Potential OOCNess and OCs.**

 **Also, if you spot any grammatical and/or spelling (disregarding the factor I don't** **use American grammar and spelling) please point them out.**

 **Translations used will appear here when I've used them:**

 **Siastra = Belarusian for Sister**

 **Lyubov Moya = Russ** **ian for My Love**

 **Ma Chérie = French for My Dear**

 **Mademoiselle = French for Miss**

 **Tetushka = Russian for Auntie**

 **Vati = German for Dad**

 **I hope you enjoyed the story so far! Please leave a review!**

 **~Liz**


	2. Weird Families And Love

The living room was, thankfully, devoid of chaos when Natalya arrived, yet it was still abnormally quiet and calm given the less than calm dispositions of her younger two children.

Ilya was seated at the table, surprisingly peaceful and innocent-seeming, drawing. On closer inspection, he appeared to be drawing 'plans' on a map, but his mother shrugged it off. It kept him out of a noisier kind of trouble. And at least he was dedicated. She'd always believed in planning ahead herself, having planned her wedding even before her husband would agree to marry her, so she could hardly complain.

She pondered what to do now...It had been at least an hour since she had spent any time with her Beloved Big Brother, which was far too long and totally unacceptable, but she couldn't see any sign of her younger daughter either, and that was slightly troubling given the younger Belarusian's tendency to run off when she got the chance.

Her obsession with Russia and her motherly instinct did battle inside her mind. Her duty as a mother won in the end, and she turned on her young son interrogatively, "Ilyushka, have you seen your Siastra?" She demanded to know.

The small boy looked up upon hearing his mother call out her pet name for him, and seemed to give the question serious consideration, tilting his head and thinking for a few long minutes. "Inna's upstairs and Stasya's in France," He concluded at long last.

Natalya rolled her eyes. She supposed she had asked for that since she hadn't stated _which_ sister, but she hadn't been expecting Ilya to assume she didn't _know_ about her eldest daughter's trip. She was the one who had organised it after all...More time in which her Brother wasn't taken away from her. But Belarus hurriedly dismissed that line of thought before she got too carried away and forgot about checking up on Inna.

She headed off upstairs again in a bit of a rush, not sure if she liked the idea of Inna being left alone. Her daughter wasn't far off being an adult, yet...A part of Natalya still thought of her as a child. A troubled child. She had hoped that Inna would grow out of her odd resentment of her father, but that hadn't been the case. She made her way to Minsk's room and knocked on the door, waiting outside impatiently.

Something hit the other side of the door. From bitter past experience, Belarus recognised the sound of a knife being thrown and jamming into the wood. She sighed. _Great,_ of all the things Minsk could pick from her, it would be her old angsty coping mechanism. "Inna, put the knives away and open the door." She ordered.

There was a long, sullen silence, then the door was slowly, reluctantly dragged open. The Belarusian mother eyeballed her second child as the shame-faced teen drew the bladed weapon out of the back of her door. Judging by the cracks and marks on the door, this was far from the first time she had dealt with her emotions this way. The teen was clad entirely in black and her eyes were narrowed into a glare, albeit a sullen and slightly embarrassed one now she was faced with her mother.

Inna had a lot of unresolved emotional issues regarding her family. She always had and they didn't look like getting resolved any time soon. Her brother was too young to enter into the issues, a mere annoyance at the moment. And she openly despised her father, seeing his protectiveness towards her as controlling and accusing him of hiding things from her. He had home educated his children, but the Belarusian girl had done her own research and she was sure there were things in the past, the past of her home Country and her City, and therefore _her_ history, he hadn't talked about.

Her feelings towards her mother and elder sister were not as clear-cut.

Moscow had always been a kind Big Sister to her, albeit sometimes reluctantly when she was forced to babysit or take over 'parental' explaining duties, and she looked at these memories in a fond light. Her strange, silent Big Sister could be more understanding, in a removed, detached way, than her over-protective parents. But she always supported her father too, standing by him as both his Capital City on a professional level and his loving daughter on an emotional level.

That was most of the problem with her mother too. Minsk was Natalya's Capital and her daughter, so naturally, there was love there. But her mother, who she felt should be more supportive in her plight for total independence from her father since Belarus was a separate Nation in its own right, frustrated her at every turn. She spoke his language, relied on him for everything, and even went as far as to constantly nag the younger Belarusian, saying she should love him too...

She rolled her eyes, snapping away from her inner monologue to face the elder woman in front of her. "Now what?" She muttered grumpily.

Belarus sighed and took the knife out of her daughter's hand, giving her a mildly disapproving look as she slipped it into her own pocket. "What did I say about taking my knives when you're angry?" This battle had been going on too long for Natalya to be more than a little vexed. Ever since Inna had figured out where the knives were kept and how to reach them, in spite of 'child-proof' locks and moving things around, she kept finding and taking them. In the process damaging doors, walls and household objects as she vented her emotions.

The Nation received no answer, so she let it slide, "Anyway, I came to see if you were okay. Now I see that you're not. So let me in and we will solve the problem." She continued, matter-of-fact on the outside, while inside her mind, memories of another passionate, angry young woman with no one she trusted enough to talk to and a lot of pent-up aggressive swirled in her mind. She was glad she could say that, for the most part, she had grown out of that. But she was beginning to give up hope that her daughter would.

And that wasn't _fair,_ because she had been like that when her family had been going through endless separation and reunions and turmoil, but she had gone out of her way to ensure that her children would have a better life so they wouldn't be that way.

Perhaps Inna saw through her mother's calm façade to the uncomfortable, nagging doubt in her mind, because she slowly stepped back and let her step inside. Natalya kept quiet for a while, wandering over to her daughter's bed and sitting down on its edge as she considered what to say, fixating on those memories of her past self as she tried to think of what she had needed to hear...

Eventually, she patted the bed beside her, "Come," She said softly, and her daughter sat beside her warily, watching her expectantly. Inna waited for the rant about trying to get along with her father to be repeated for the thousandth time. It never came.

The icy, usually non-maternal Belarusian put an arm around her child and gently pulled her head onto her chest, her fingers wound in the ends Inna's pale ashen locks on the nape of her neck. "You are loved. You better know that. And remember that." She told her, her tone firm while her voice was soft.

For several, long minutes, stillness and silence descended. Then slowly, Inna raised her head and the spell broke. She pulled away a little and sat up again, searching for something to say. "Uh...Thanks..." She mumbled awkwardly. "I...I forget, sometimes..."

Natalya sighed again as she stood up, taking the young City's cheeks in her hands and bringing her head up so she could gently plant a kiss on her forehead, "We all do, Dear. Nothing to thank me for. Just next time..." The Belarusian had wandered back to the door, preparing to leave, though she could still feel Inna's expectant gaze on her back "Go and talk to Auntie Iryna...She's better at the whole 'emotions' thing..." She added as she opened the door.

Minsk laughed slightly, reaching over to her bedside table and pulling out a notebook. She hoped she would have a 'next time'. She wasn't big on talking about her emotions herself. She scribbled something down in her book, something that might save the talking.

 _This family's fucked up. But at least I'm loved!_


	3. The Dangers Of The Grown-Up World

While his various family members went about their unusual lives, Ivan Rusovich Braginsky, the personification of Russia, waited patiently near the window, looking out into the street.

He felt a little bad about his eldest daughter being away, especially considering that Nastasya was away on his behalf, as a compromise with Natalya, who acknowledged that he had a duty to go to such meetings...Then refused to let him go unless she could come too. Which tended to put other people off a little. She could be very...intense.

So Nastasya went uncomplainingly and represented him at international meetings. She was very professional about it and the meetings usually went well...But it bothered him. The over-protective parent part of him worried, in spite of that she was not exactly Human and wouldn't come to harm in the same way, that something could go wrong with her flight, or there would be a terrorist attack, or...His irrational mind could think of _thousands_ of things that could go _horribly_ wrong.

He knew, deep down, that it was a crazy line of thought, but nevertheless, he would only be fully comforted when he knew Moscow was safely home.

As if on cue, a car drew up outside the house. After a few minutes, the door opened and after catching a brief glimpse of his daughter's familiar purple coat, he hurried to open the front door.

He got there before she did, but waited, watching her pull her suitcase out of the back of the car and rush towards him. Her stoic face was as expressionless as ever, but he could tell she was happy to see him as she began to walk faster.

There was something else, too, he noticed as she reached him. Perhaps it was his instinct as a parent, some kind of Country-Capital bond, or the astute observation powers that centuries of surviving as a Nation had developed, but he could tell almost as soon as he saw her face that something had changed. The Russian man glanced over her again, checking her over critically as his heart pounded. Perhaps he had been right to worry. Was she old and independent enough to go off on her own like that without coming back different?

He couldn't see anything visibly wrong with Nastasya, at least. Her pale cheeks were flushed, but he could put that down to the effects of the freezing early February weather. The small suitcase she had taken for just her necessities with stuffed full and almost bursting now, but then he _had_ given her quite a bit of shopping money 'just in case'. And her eyes were sparkling. She seemed happy. _Very_ happy.

So he brushed away his concerns for her and let himself be happy too, pulling her into a tight embrace. They could talk about the trip later if need be, even though it must have gone well for her to be so happy about it, but for now...His child was _here_ , in his arms, safe and sound. That was the main thing, as always.

Ivan spun around with Nastasya still clutched in his arms, picking her and her luggage up as though they weighed nothing and placing her inside the house, kissing her forehead as he moved away to shut the door, leaving the freshly falling snow outside.

"Welcome home, Petal," He smiled at her, glad just to have his whole family under one roof again. He beckoned to her to follow him and they walked through into the living room, where Ilya was still quietly drawing at the table. He pulled a face at his biggest sister. There was some sort of unspoken competition between the two Russian Cities, at least from Ilya's point of view, to be Ivan's 'favourite' child. The Russian father didn't actually play favourites, but since Inna didn't want his attention, Ilya only really had to compete for it when Nastasya came home.

The Muscovite just rolled her eyes, ignoring him as she settled down on the couch, beside her mother. Belarus had come back downstairs from her chat with Minsk and just settled down with her diary to read and reminisce when Moscow had come home, but now the book was dropped on the floor and the Slavic mother was alert, "Nastasya, Sweetheart!" She put her arms around her daughter in a fierce hug for a few moments, then pulled away, "How was your trip? Tell us everything!" She insisted, as energised as her husband by her child's return.

Then she remembered something through the chaos of pleasant emotions at seeing Nastasya again. "Wait! I should just go and tell Irunya and Inna. They'll want to see you too!" Before anyone could stop her, the ever-zealous Belarusian woman dashed off back upstairs, leaving the three Russians alone together.

Ilya quietly continued with his drawing, occasionally glancing across at Nastasya sullenly. She was oblivious, lapsed into silence as her protective parents had paused with the excitable questioning of her for now. In fact, Ivan thought as he watched her, she seemed to be in another World, sitting there in her coat, fiddling with her necklace.

 _Wait a minute...necklace?!_ Ivan rather suddenly remembered that his daughter wasn't a big jewellery fan. She had a few pieces he'd gifted her over the years, but she certainly hadn't packed them into her very practical, 'it's only for a business trip' luggage, and she hadn't been wearing any when she'd left. He peered at her trinket as subtly as possible and noticed, as the pendant slipped through her fingers, that it was a little heart on a chain, with some letters he couldn't quite make out engraved on it.

It took all his self-control not to grab at it and take a closer look. He _tried_ to calm down. Maybe she had just bought it for herself as a treat. But that seemed very unlikely...No, he was _sure_ now, from the way she had seemed to change to the necklace. _She was in love for the first time._

Which, to the brooding, over-protective side of his mind that was already taking over again, meant she would get her first heartbreak sometime soon. And then he would have to find her unknown Beloved and break something _else_ instead.

Belarus, Ukraine and Minsk soon returned and the four women chattered innocently about how well Moscow's business meetings had gone, how long the flights could be and the various things she had bought in Paris, oblivious to the dark thoughts going through the Russian man's brain.

Most of it came down to one thing. His daughter, the first little baby that had brought him an emotional rollercoaster ultimately ending in more joy than he had ever felt before, wasn't just his baby and Capital anymore...She was a grown-up, an administrative centre in her own right and part of a growing, chaotic World. A World of complex emotions, another one of the millions of things that could hurt her no matter what he tried to do to protect her.

 _His babies weren't babies anymore...And he didn't like that. Because he didn't want to let go and let them get hurt._


	4. Secrets, Dating And Drinking

Ivan Braginsky, Personification of Russia, sulked in a corner and let his siblings and children do the talking. He didn't know how to proceed. He had handled wars just fine in the past but his feelings about his revelation were conflicting. At the moment, he couldn't fully commit to being angry right now, because he was seeing his Little Daughter almost _glowing_ with happiness. Yet...

It wasn't that he disliked the idea of Moscow being in love with someone. It was just that he would rather she had told him first and given him every little detail so that if her heart got broken at some point, he would know who to address his _'objections'_ to. But Nastasya remained curiously evasive of any personal questions. Her responses to her family's questions were straight to the point and all business.

Ivan rolled his eyes. _Typical._ At least that was a bonus of this 'love' thing. She was actually appearing to possess a social life. It was a little worrying sometimes, how much she took after the unemotional side of Natalya. A thought slipped into his head...Hopefully, she wouldn't be like Natalya in her initial attitude to love too, or it would make it difficult to do anything to the unknown but pity them...

But the Russian man shook himself out of that line of thought hastily. He was getting ahead of himself. Before he could truly concern himself with what to do with them, he had to get information. And since conventional questioning had proved useless against his teenage daughter's remarkable poker face, he had to concoct a plan...

He left them talking and slipped away to think in peace. It wasn't until later, after he had heard Nastasya dragging her suitcase upstairs to unpack, that he wandered back into the living room to find that the group discussion was definitely over and everyone had dispersed, getting back to other business. He could hear the voices of his sisters from the kitchen, Inna seemed to have gone back to the bedroom she was so fond of hiding in again, and Ilya was still sat at the table.

He treated his son to a big grin as he made his way over, happy to have found him alone. His plan involved Ilya's help and while part of him felt bad about playing on the obvious rivalry between his oldest and youngest children, he considered this situation desperate and therefore, he wasn't above recruiting a willing spy.

"Ilyushka, can you help me for a moment?" He asked the small boy sweetly.

The young Russian placed his pen down and looked up at his father curiously, "With what? And what's in it for me?" He demanded to know.

Ivan sighed and considered how best to get around this issue. In the background, he was vaguely aware of Iryna reading a recipe and glanced back to his son, "Cake?" He suggested, mentally thanking his Big Sister for offering a solution, even if she wasn't aware she had done.

The child's face lit up and his demeanour of slight suspicion swiftly vanished. "What do you need?!" He asked excitedly.

"Go and see your Sestra Nastasya, da? Tell me what she's doing and so on..." Ivan explained as innocently and subtly as he was able to.

Ilya shrugged and jumped up from his seat, "Okay!" He agreed without further questioning, dashing off upstairs without batting an eyelid. Russia breathed out, relaxing a little now that he had a plan of sorts in place and had managed to set it in motion without raising suspicion. All he could do now was wait and hope Saint Petersburg could find something out without irritating Moscow too much.

Meanwhile, Ilya scurried upstairs and, with the total lack tact and consideration young brothers often have for their sisters, barged into Nastasya's bedroom, shoving her door open with a bang and running inside before she was able to stop him.

The Muscovite was sat on her bed, scribbling away in a notebook Ilya knew to be her diary only from the enraged shrieks he had been subjected to last time he had gone into her bedroom and got his hands on it. She looked up and treated her youngest sibling to a withering, suspicion-filled glare. "What do _you_ want?" She snapped.

Instantly, the young boy pouted at her, indignant at being questioned. "Nothing..." He muttered, petulant and a little guilty at her immediate suspicion of him.

Nastasya sighed and went back to writing, not bothering to dignify her brother's presence with a second glance. "Get out then," She ordered icily as she wrote. Ilya considered this for a full five seconds, then elected to ignore it and flopped down on his stomach beside her on the bed. She edged away and glowered at him in case he still thought he was welcome, but he lay there stubbornly, peering past her arm at the words as she scrawled them across her diary's pages.

* * *

 _I am back home_ _now...But for once I wish I wasn't. Not to say that I don't love my family as much as always, but I wanted to spend more time with Lyubov Moya. We had so little time together before I had to leave. And here I can't even talk about him. Well, I could but Mama and Papa might make a fuss. They are sometimes a little too prote_ _ctive._

 _I suppose I'll just have to keep my pendant from him close to my heart and just think of him in my dreams, both day and night. It'll take me that much time just to process all these new thoughts and feelings in silence without exploding anyway. It's all so new and sudden, but so...I can't describe it, but special. What I feel for him is definitely spe_ _cial._

 _I wasn't expecting the trip to be anything but business, but he met from the airport and that was when it started. Every time he said something sweet to me, which he kept on doing, my heart felt like it was going to burst and my face was burning up. I was worried I was falling ill at first, but that night he invited me for dinner. I told him I'd love to, but I thought I was ill, so I couldn't. He asked what was wrong, but he was laughing as soon as I tried to tell him how I was feeling. That's when he told me what was love was. And every night sin_ _ce I've been dreaming of him. So he must be right, I must be in love with him._

 _It's not quite like I imagined. Papa always told me I was safest not falling in love, yet now I understand what it is that I'm feeling, I'm starting to feel safer around him. Mama told me it was her reason for living, that she loved Papa and the rest of our family. And while I'd be devastated if I lost him, I think I'd keep living..._

 _But I don't know, I can't say. It's so confusing to have been through this then just_ _come home and try to be normal again!_

* * *

Ilya watched his eldest sister for a while in case she decided to write anything more interesting. Then he slid off the bed and wandered off idly. Well, he hadn't understood much of what she'd been going on about there, but his father had wanted to know, so he might as well tell him and fulfil his side of their agreement.

When Ilya found his father and passed on what he had understood, Ivan nodded and took it in, but once his son left, apparently to get the promised cake, he let out a loud sigh. That hadn't helped him with much at all. He still didn't know Nastasya's mysterious lover was, just that she had one, which he had suspected anyway. Now what could he do to find out the full truth...?

An idea sprang into his head and he grabbed his phone. It was a desperate shot in the dark, but there was a chance, since Nastasya had been in Paris, that France might know what had been going on during her trip.

Quickly, with a new sense of urgency, the Russian man dialled his French colleague's number and waited. Within a few minutes, a voice at the other end answered, "Bonjour?" Questioningly.

"Privet, Francis," He answered, then, greetings exchanged, hurried to his point, "Listen, I need your help with something. It's very important."

"Ah..Oui?" The Frenchman replied hesitantly.

Ivan cleared his throat and spat it out. "It's about my daughter, Nastasya," He came clean.

There was a pause, then a nervous, "Why? Is something the matter with her...?" From Francis.

"Nyet, not as such, but, ah, did anything odd happen while she was with you?" The Russian man struggled to find the words for all the questions running through his mind.

"No, it was fine. Why?" Francis sounded confused and on edge now.

"Well...I don't know how to ask this, so please just listen and stop asking me questions, da?" Ivan asked as he sighed.

"Uh..." There was another nervous pause. Russia considered tactics for a moment and then decided he didn't have time for this. Matters concerning his family were _urgent._

 _"Da?!"_ He demanded firmly.

"Okay, sure..." The Frenchman conceded.

"Who else was there with you?" Ivan began to question.

"No one really. A few politicians at some points but mostly, it was just us." Was the answer.

That wasn't brilliantly helpful...Ivan kept up the interrogation. "And she didn't go off anywhere with anyone?"

"Non, of course not! I looked after her like you tol- Asked me to!" France exclaimed defensively, then Ivan was sure he heard him mumble, "I tried to anyway..." Softly on the end.

He let that comment slide, his mind racing. "Well...Thank you." He muttered a little tersely before slamming down the phone abruptly. Did this mean Francis's idea of 'looking after' his daughter was to _date_ her?!

Angry and confused, he stared at the wall and wondered how in the World he was supposed to protect his precious daughter if she keeping secrets this big from him. He needed to work out how to react to all this...weird adultness his child had suddenly come home with. He needed to figure out exactly what was going on between her and France. Most of all, he needed a drink.


	5. The Second Side To The Story

Francis listened long enough to hear the sharp click of Ivan slamming the phone down before he dropped his phone too with a big sigh. He was beginning to want a drink as well. The Frenchman had been rather worried before the phone call, the last thing he had needed was a bunch of unexplained questions from the rather scary Russian man.

Especially not concerning Nastasya. She had been concerning him lately when he thought back on their time together...

* * *

 _He had, after a lengthy phone call with Ivan explaining why it would be his daughter, who Francis had only met a handful of times before, visiting, not him, and expressing, in a mildly threatening manner, a fatherly concern for his daughter's safety, gone to pick her up at the airport. At the time, he hadn't thought of it as a big deal. He had met the girl before, and apart from an apparent lack of emotions and the fact she didn't appear to appreciate his cooking abilities, she didn't seem too bad. At least, she wasn't as scary as he had been expecting given who her parents were._

 _But soon, he realised he had been wrong to assume that. Within an hour or so of him picking her up, he was beginning to notice that she wasn't the same stoic, unemotional girl he had met before. For one thing, she kept staring at him in a weird way that was starting to make him uncomfortable. Then there was her smile._

 _She smiled like someone who wasn't used to doing so and didn't really know how, yet it was a constant, fixed feature on her face. The young woman was sitting next to him in the passenger seat of his car, and though he was trying to focus on the road, he glanced over at her occasionally, trying to figure out what was going on here and hoping that her weird expression would return to normal at some point._

 _It didn't, so he ineffectively ignored her until they reached the venue their meeting was meant to be at, where, at least, he wouldn't be alone with her, as his boss and some other political figures would be attending too._

 _During the meeting, he hoped things had become normal again, as Moscow acted completely professionally if a little coldly. Relieved, he approached her at the end of the meeting to give her directions to her hotel, in case she wasn't sure of her way around his country._

 _"Well, Mademoiselle, I think that concludes our work until the morning, do you know where you're staying?" He checked._

 _And instantly, the woman's expression flickered. She looked strangely happy to see him, yet a little bewildered at the same time. "Are we not going to spend the evening together? I had hoped to go out to dinner..." She suggested._

 _Francis raised an eyebrow. He hadn't seen that coming, and he couldn't really imagine why she would want such a thing when their time together was intended to be purely professional, and she had previously expressed a dislike for his country's cuisine anyway. But, he had, although somewhat under duress, promised his colleagues he would take good care of their daughter, so he shrugged, "Well, oui, why not?" He answered in agreement._

 _Her face lit up again, that odd smile returning. This time, he felt he had to say something. He couldn't spend the whole evening with her if she kept making him uncomfortable like this. "Um...Are you feeling okay?" He checked as the two began to walk back to his car together._

 _"Well...I have been a little bit ill since I got here." She conceded._

 _Out of good-natured concern, Francis continued where hindsight told him he should have stopped and dropped their plans together, "Oh, what's the matter?"_

 _"My face feels all weird...keeps getting hot and red. And my heartbeat's a bit off..." She muttered, beginning to reluctantly describe her symptoms to him, "But I'm sure it's nothing that should stop us spending time together!" She added hurriedly._

 _Thousands of years of experience came to the Frenchmen's aid, puzzle pieces falling slowly into place. Oh dear, He thought with an inward sigh. The situation had just become even more complicated and delicate. He was beginning to suspect that Nastasya had a crush on him, first by the sounds of things and the way she was acting. And, while he would admit she probably fell into the category of beautiful, this was a wide category for him, as he tended to appreciate everyone's beauty, but there was far more to romance than attraction. They were very different people, she was a young personification and he had lived through many lifetimes, and besides, Belarus and Russia would probably murder him if he dated their daughter._

 _Nevertheless, she was expectantly watching him, and he realised they had reached the car without him responding to her at all._

 _He was going to have to tell her, then._

 _He stopped, turning to face her and trying to think of the least awkward or hurtful way to say this, "Ma Ch_ é _rie, I don't think you're ill, as such..." He began, "It's just...I think you may have just a little tiny crush on moi," Feeling as though that could have gone better, he stood back to witness the effects of his words._

 _The Muscovite blinked, looking confused. "What?"_

 _Great, she didn't understand. The task had got even harder. "It's...It's sort of like falling in love..." He murmured softly, not really sure of himself there, but not knowing what to say and how to explain to a naïve, confused young woman._

 _"Love?" She mused aloud. As she did, it occurred to Francis that, having grown up in her...odd little family, with her incestuous, overly-attached parents, Nastasya most likely had a warped concept of love._

 _Which may have explained why, brushing off all his attempts to intervene and explain further, she seized his hand in hers and tugged him into the car, raving about how happy he made her. They had ended up going out that evening, on what she had called their 'First date', where he had done his best to make amends, explaining as gently as he could that a crush was only like love, not the same, and that hers was one-sided. It had been very, very hard, and he hadn't made much progress. For the rest of her stay in France, the deluded chatter about love, the creepy smile and the dragging him around had continued relentlessly. The day she had bought that necklace had been one of the worst, with her babbling about it being a symbol of their love. And saying goodbye at the airport, while a relief for him, had led to tears from her._

* * *

So, yes, Francis had to conclude, he was deeply concerned about her. The phone call from Russia hadn't exactly eased his mind, bringing out lies from him in self-defence. He shuddered slightly to himself. That whole family was terrifying.


	6. Restoring Peace?

A few hours after the initial phone call to France, Russia was still restless, pacing around his home. He really wanted to figure out what on Earth was going on between Nastasya and Francis, but so far, he hadn't achieved much at all. Now, the only thing he could think of to do was talk to them both. But he had tried speaking to Francis, and it hadn't seemed to work very well.

Perhaps he would have more success with his daughter. Somehow, he doubted that. Talking about her feelings was hardly something Nastasya had shown enthusiasm for in the past. But he had to try, so he set off to find her.

Eventually, he located the teenager, still sat in her room scribbling away in her diary, though she looked up when he put his head around the door. She lowered her pen and shut the book, watching him expectantly.

And all of a sudden Ivan regretted his decision. This was almost certainly going to be an awkward conversation. He supposed he should be glad he wasn't trying to approach his other daughter without getting his head ripped off. "Uh...I can come in, da?" He checked. Years of getting knives thrown in his direction for apparently violating Minsk's personal space had made him consider it unwise to enter one of his children's bedroom without permission or weapon of his own.

"Obviously," Moscow shrugged. She always found it slightly odd that her father assumed she was as tetchy as her sister on that matter, but humoured him nonetheless.

Ivan came over and sat beside her on her bed, then paused again, thinking of a good way to start this conversation. Eventually, the chaotic thoughts gnawing at his mind took over, pushed all consideration of tact aside and blurted out, "You're in love with Francis, da?"

The look on her usually expressionless face said it all. The shock, and the way she blushed as he said the Frenchman's name. It was a while before she actually spoke, though. "...How did you know?" She asked at last.

"Once you've been in love, you can usually tell when someone else is," He pointed out, then decided to be a little more honest with her, "And then I phoned France to talk about your trip too and make sure everything was okay, and he told me a few things." He hadn't really told him anything _useful,_ but he didn't feel like that mattered. Just like he had decided that, while honesty mattered to some extent, the fact he had used her brother to spy on her wasn't relevant here.

Moscow was silent for a while. "Do you mind...That we're dating?" She asked softly.

Inner conflict surfaced again. So they _were_ dating? At least he knew now. But the fact she hadn't mentioned this earlier bothered him slightly. Yet, she was an adult in human terms now, it was up to her to make her own choices. The trouble was, _he_ wasn't ready for her to be an adult, and sometimes it was a struggle to admit it.

But eventually, he opted to be bigger than that and reassure his daughter, "Da, if it makes you happy, Petal," He put his arm around her shoulders and cuddled her gently, "If it makes you happy, you can do whatever you like, da? Just...If it stops making you happy, stop. And if you get hurt, let me know."

Wordlessly, she nodded and rested her head against his shoulder. Despite the emotional rollercoaster of the last few hours, Ivan couldn't help but smile. He felt he had managed to find out what was going on with his eldest child without upsetting her at all. Why she and Francis had both been so evasive on the subject earlier, he still wasn't sure, but he supposed he'd work that out later. For now, he could just enjoy some nice family bonding time.

That thought was almost instantly interrupted by his phone ringing. He sighed and disentangled himself from his daughter, excusing himself quietly and stepping out of her room to talk the call privately.

Francis had also snapped out of his complex thoughts on the dilemma and decided that, if he couldn't get it through to Nastasya that they weren't dating, he better make sure he informed others of the _real_ situation before rumours got around. To this end, he had called the Russian man, and almost as soon as the other picked up, he began to hastily give him his side of the story as well as he could, given the panic the whole situation made him feel and the fact that he was trying very hard not to imply that the other man's daughter was absolutely insane.

For his part, Ivan was stunned and bewildered. He had just been beginning to think he had this situation sorted and now...Now he realised why Francis had been so weird during their earlier phone call. It was a horrible and confusing situation, yet it made perfect sense to him. While a part of him didn't want to admit his beloved daughter would do anything wrong, he knew from past experience that love, or at least a state of mind believed to be love, could lead to all sorts of chaos and misunderstandings. Especially in this family, it seemed. He blushed and rolled his eyes at that thought as it reminded him of his somewhat turbulent past with Natalya before they had understood one another's feelings.

But that was different. They had, eventually, realised they had mutual feelings. This clearly wasn't the case for Francis and Nastasya, and if his daughter didn't realise, there would be more harm than good caused for all concerned. So, with a sigh, he told Francis to leave to him and hung up. He'd have to sort this out somehow.

 _How_ exactly, he had no idea.

"Brother!" Natalya's voice behind him made him jump and he swung around suddenly. Exchanging a look was all it took for him to get an idea and her to know he had something on his mind. They both opened their mouths to speak, but Natalya was fastest, "What's wrong?!" She demanded to know.

"It's Nastasya," Ivan began to explain, watching his wife instantly tense up as he mentioned that the issue was with their daughter.

"What's the matter with her? Has something happened?!" The Belarusian continued to interrogate him.

"Da, sort of. The thing is...She has a bit of a crush on France. And apparently...She thinks they are dating, he thinks they are not. So it's confusing, da?" The Russian man did his best to explain.

Natalya rolled her eyes, "That's all? I'll go and explain to her then." She answered matter-of-factly, setting off to find Moscow before Ivan had a chance to respond. He sighed. Ah, well, at least it saved him working out a way to solve the issue. And perhaps, given the history of their 'romance', Natalya could relate more to Nastasya's current state of mind.

That was also what Belarus was hoping as she hovered outside her eldest daughter's bedroom for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Yes, she knew what it was like to be so infatuated with someone that nothing else mattered to you, even their own feelings on the matter. And even though her feelings had blossomed into a very happy relationship, that had ultimately been because Ivan had eventually admitted he returned her feelings. Even she had to admit, though never aloud as she didn't want to look like she would give up, that if all she had got had continued to be rejection, then there would come a point when the only solution, however hard it was, would be to let go.

She tapped on her daughter's bedroom door, preparing to explain this to her. Moscow sighed, resigned to the fact that she wasn't getting any peace and quiet today, got up and opened the door.

"I need to talk to you," Natalya told her, stepping inside.

"...Well? What about?" Nastasya asked as she watched her mother wander into her room.

"France." The Belarusian explained in a single word. The reaction was instant, her daughter's face lit up and she opened her mouth to gush, until the older woman cut her off again. "I know you must be feeling about him. I'm sure you know I've always been very, very in love with your Dear Papa myself..." She began, getting slightly distracted and nearly gushing herself, but gathering her composure again as she saw her daughter nod, still watching her quizzically.

"But that's different, because clearly we're soul mates and he loves me too. Apparently, this isn't the case with France." Natalya came to the point.

For a while, the Russian girl was silent, thinking about her mother's words. "But...I could make him love me, in time." She answered, sounding slightly uncertain.

 _"No."_ Belarus said firmly. "No, that's not how love works. I thought it was once, but really, he already loved me and it was that attitude that pushed him further away and made him hesitate to say so. Well...Partly, but that's not the point. The point is, and...I'm sorry I have to tell you this," She paused, taking a breath. It wasn't easy to have to hurt her daughter, but it was for the best, she told herself. "But if he doesn't love you, he's never going to. And sometimes in life, you just have to let go."

There was a long pause, Moscow's face pale and expressionless as she stared past her mother, her eyes unfocused. Natalya's heart sank and for a moment she hated herself for breaking her daughter's heart. Then the younger woman spoke. "How...?" She muttered. "How on Earth can I do that?"

Good question, Natalya thought. She tried to recall some of the ways, other than raging, throwing things or chasing after him anyway, that she had dealt with her brother's rejection before they had finally married. Running away to America and trying to live in denial hadn't worked very well. Some of the best things she had done, though it wasn't really 'letting go', had been distracting herself with more 'acceptable' parts of her obsession. Most importantly, they were the parts that hadn't hurt anyone.

"Try leaving him alone for a bit and just...Doing some things that mean you can still think about him without making him think badly of you. Like..." She looked around and saw the diary her daughter had been writing in earlier, now lying on her bed, "Writing about him or something." She suggested.

Silently, Nastasya wondered over to her bed, sat down and picked the book up, engrossing herself in writing again. Natalya hovered for a while, unsure if the talk had been very successful. But then, her daughter did seem to be taking her advice, in her own, quiet way. And neither woman had ever been one to waste words.

Leaving her to her silent writing, the Belarusian woman went back to find her husband. She didn't have to look far. Ivan was waiting anxiously exactly where she had left him. "How did that go?" He demanded to know as soon as he saw her.

"Well...She wasn't very happy about it, but you can't expect her to be. I think it'll be fine though." She told him.

This was clearly a weight of his mind. He had been wrestling with the puzzle of his daughter's love life for a long time now, and was so relieved to have it resolved that he pulled his wife into a tight hug and spun her around happily, "I knew you could fix it!" He declared when he finally set her down again, still holding her. "Now, what did you want before we got distracted, Sestra Dear?"

Natalya, always glad of her Beloved's affection, smiled too, clinging to him. "All I want is you," She told him, leaning in for a kiss.

Minsk and St. Petersburg wandered past, whispering to one another in a way that instantly aroused the suspicions of both parents. The only comment loud enough for them to hear was both children muttering, "Yuck!" At their lovebird parents.

Natalya rolled her eyes and Ivan laughed, "Never a dull moment, da?" He observed of their family life.

Nonetheless, for a moment, things seemed more or less peaceful again.


	7. A New War

Things didn't really stay peaceful for long, as was usually the case in the Braginsky household. While Nastasya stayed quiet, hiding in her room and writing private things in her diary while listening to French music, trying to copy the language and refusing to speak otherwise, Natalya and Ivan didn't really object to this unusual coping mechanism. What caused more of an issue for the two Nations were the plots of their younger children.

Inna and Ilya had progressed from suspicious whispering together to a curious form of stealing. This first became obvious shortly after Natalya had decided that she and her Beloved Big Brother were overdue a 'date night' and started preparing. She had grabbed a DVD they could watch together and was going about making the living room both as comfortable and as romantic as possible before surprising Ivan with this plan.

The sunflowers she had arranged around the television were fine, she had prepared snacks for them so, she noted a touch bitterly from past experience, the Russian man didn't decide he 'needed' to go and get food then 'forget' to come back to their date, and was now in process of dragging cushions and blankets in from their room so they could comfortably cuddle together later on.

This, however, was where the Belarusian woman encountered her problem. When she returned from getting more cushions, the blankets she had brought down before had disappeared. She was pretty sure she didn't have memory problems, that she had left them here and that the other members of her family weren't visibly around.

The conclusion from Natalya's naturally suspicious mind was that there was a robbery taking place. Granted, she didn't know anyone who would merely take blankets when robbing a house and not more valuable items like the TV, but she still distrusted the idea of disappearing blankets enough to investigate.

First things first, she experimentally dropped the cushions on the floor where she had previously left the blankets as bait, then she headed off in search of Ivan.

In her mother's absence, Minsk darted out from behind the couch and grabbed the cushions before running out of the room. She ran, stifling laughter, through the kitchen and out into the garden, where she concealed herself in a shed. A pile of blankets nearby sprouted the head of her younger brother, and both children dissolved into giggles. Well, it started out as giggles and soon became maniacal laughter.

Meanwhile, Belarus had pushed her way into her Brother's office. "Vanya, we have a problem!" She called out to him, instantly distracting him from some paperwork he had been glaring at in the hope that it would go away.

"What problem? Where?!" Ivan jumped up and grabbed the 'emergency pipe' he kept with him at all times.

"A burglar, I suspect," The Belarusian explained, reaching to her own weapon, a knife that was shoved down the belt of her apron. Their eyes met and that appeared to be all the communication needed to reach a decision. Belarus tore off in the direction of the living room again, with Russia swiftly charging after her.

Both Nations skidded to a halt, brandishing their weapons, in the still deserted living room. Now Natalya started to explain further, "See? I was making things nice for you and me to enjoy later...Then my blankets disappeared. And now the cushions too..." She told Ivan, scowling.

There was a pause while Ivan tried to process this. By now, he was used to the idea of his sister setting up 'dates' and suddenly springing them on him, so he didn't bother dwelling on that side of the issue, but he had been expecting, from the mention of a 'burglar', a little more of a problem than what now faced him.

On the other hand, the culprit had upset his Little Sestra, not to mention that, as Natalya had appropriated the things from their bedroom, they were potentially messing with his ability to sleep later on. He growled and muttered, "Then there is obviously a very stupid intruder, da? Let's go and get them, Bela!"

But 'they' were currently making aggressive plans of their own. In the shed, some discarded water pistols from their earlier childhood had been located, alongside an old watering can that still contained some, albeit muddy, water with which to fill them.

Inna was carefully pouring water into the gun her brother was gripping with a grin on her face. She was vaguely aware that as a fourteen-year-old who considered herself to have very serious problems to handle, she ought to be above this sort of thing. On the contrary, she was the one who had set it in motion.

It had started with her dislike of her father, and now she was slightly smug at the chance to get him, alongside her brother's ambitious notion that he would one day take over the world. Another factor had been boredom. Boredom had led her to begin lamenting about how there should be a Belarusian, Anti-Russian rebellion, naturally led by her.

She had done this while sitting in the room where her odd little sibling was mapping out his own plans, and he had decided that, even though he was Russian and fundamentally disagreed with her, it would be a good opportunity for a fight. And the outcome of a fight, from Ilya's point of view, could benefit his own nefarious plans.

So, their alliance against their father in the name of causing chaos had begun. They had acquired a base of operations, stolen the materials with which to further barricade their fort, and found some weapons.

Admittedly, Inna conceded in the privacy of her own thoughts, they were more childlike than she had envisioned, but that was what happened when resources where limited and your chief ally was an eight-year-old Hell bent on World domination in his mind, but in reality treating this rather like an opportunity to play a fun game with his sister.

She did know where there were _real_ weapons. But they would be harder to steal than a few cushions, reason being, they were better guarded, if not on the persons on her parents. She had debated getting Moscow on their side with her gun, but her elder sister was one of her father's biggest advocates, far too serious to be involved and in any case, had gone mental about some man.

She rolled her eyes and tipped a little extra water into Ilya's weapon before going to load her own. _No,_ this was the _only_ way. Even if it wasn't deadly enough for her liking, it would at least show people she meant _business._

Inside the house, the two unaware Nations were charging around madly, in search of an intruder. Several times so far, they had merely bumped into one another instead. Now they were growing frustrated with the hunt.

But things took a sudden turn when hostilities escalated. Believing themselves to be fully prepared, the burglars and would be rebels had sent an agent (Ilya) from their base to announce the impending war. Hence, a stone was hurled at the window before a figure ran back into the shed.

Both Nations jumped and glared out of the window before running at high speed into the garden. Ilya had already vanished too quickly to be identified, but Ivan's sharp eye had spotted where the miscreant had headed and he tore after him with his wife screeching war cries in Belarusian as she followed.

Inna, hearing the chaos outside, allowed herself a little snigger as she pulled her brother further into the darkness of the shed, thrust both weapons into his hands for the time being, and started throwing together a barricade of cushions and blankets against the back of the flimsy wooden door as the enemy drew nearer.

Russia yanked open the door, only to get a torrent of muddy water in the face. For a while, he stood, frozen, while an angry Natalya shouted insults from behind him. She was in the process of trying to barge past, while her son, who didn't discriminate as to who was an enemy when he was having fun, squirted her relentlessly when Ivan started _laughing._

The shock at his reaction made everything grind to a halt. Natalya, who had been too angry to focus on anything more than revenge upon finding their 'burglar', was now seeing what her husband saw. Their two youngest children.

Ilya was still grinning, but it was beginning, now the water had run out, to dawn on him that there was more to this situation than just a fun game. Inna was no longer smiling now she had realised this form of warfare wasn't having the desired effect.

"We should have guessed it was you, da? No one else normally steals blankets..." Ivan noted when his laughter subsided, before turning to Natalya, "It's fine, Bela, they just wanted to play!" He told her cheerily.

"It's a _war_ , not a _game_..." Minsk muttered crossly.

The Russian man raised an eyebrow, then reached over and snatched a pistol from his son then ran inside. A few minutes later, he remerged, having filled the water gun up from the tap, "It's a war, Petal? You might want the other gun then, da?" He suggested, before aiming the water pistol at her.

Inna's screams and desperate attempts to wrestle the other water pistol from her brother's hands did nothing against her over-enthusiastic father, who, given his rocky relationship with her, was now, oblivious to her real intentions, just happy to be playing with her.

Belarus sighed as she stuck her knife back in her belt, grabbed her husband's discarded pipe, and indicated to Ilya, who appeared to be bored of the game now Inna and Ivan had the guns, to grab as many of the stolen items as possible before they got soaked. "Let's leave those two. They'll be a while." She told him knowingly as they walked back inside.

In the end, it was Natalya and Ilya who watched a film together that evening, while, even as it grew dark, the war raged on outside. Natalya shrugged it off. It was mildly less chaotic than real war, after all. And a lot happier for all of them, she noted, as the two shooters' laughter drifted in the air.


	8. Obsession And Aunties

Some people can't be distracted, even by stealing, wars and general chaos. At the moment, Nastasya Braginskaya was one of them. While her siblings and her parents had run around the house, stealing, arguing and eventually beginning some sort of water pistol fight, Nastasya had been busy.

Of course, her primary preoccupation was still her feelings for Francis. She had never felt this way before and being forbidden from doing anything about it was making her feel as though she was going insane.

So she was doing her best to process thoughts of the Frenchman in other ways, like her mother had suggested. First of all, she had filled her entire diary...Which had been intended to last the entire year, but hadn't even made it into March due to this, with doodles of and writing about her crush.

When she had finally finished that task, she had experienced a few moments of dizzying boredom and had to resist the urge to book a cheap flight to France before she had come up with another idea to distract herself. By finding out more about him. Well, his country and anything related to it, at least, if not him _personally._

Her attempts to learn French hadn't been very successful. She could just about manage 'Bonjour' without biting her tongue. After giving up on language, something she had never been very good at, she had moved on to French-braiding her hair while playing French music in the background.

This was how Ukraine found her niece when, the day after the 'war' had began - Although it was still raging on outside -, she sought out someone to help her with something.

It appeared Natalya and Ilya had decided to get involved in the battles again, Natalya wanting to spend time with Ivan and Ilya simply desiring to shoot water at his parents. Meanwhile, Iryna was left with a few things that needed sorting out.

She was still in the process of moving various belongings about between her own home in Kiev and her siblings' place in Moscow, even though she had been living with her siblings for the last two or three years now.

The situation was complicated. Officially, Ukraine was unaffiliated, at odds, even, with her Brother and therefore lived away from him in her own country. Unofficially, however, she and her family were still close. Natalya and Ivan had invited her for a 'short' stay years ago and she had never really left again. But at the time, she hadn't packed for a long stay either, hence the need to move more things, which she had had brought over at last, up to her guest room.

But she hadn't anticipated Moscow's current state of mind when she had decided to seek her help. Having pushed open the door to the younger woman's bedroom, the Ukrainian stood in the doorway, watching her niece nervously.

Of course, Ivan _had_ mentioned that she had a 'little bit' of a crush on Francis, but Iryna hadn't been prepared for the level of obsession. She wasn't sure if she could tear Nastasya's attention away from her preoccupations, but she _wanted_ to. The whole situation seemed slightly more creepy with every minute she spent in the room, watching the girl's blank face and weird activities.

"Uh...Stasya, Sweetie?" She called out to the Muscovite. There was a long pause, broken only by songs in the background. _Oh Dear..._ Iryna thought to herself. Well, if this is affecting her life so much, I'll have to say something, she told herself, at the same time dreading it. It'd be like all those times she tried to talk Natalya out of chasing their brother again and those had never worked.

But they had worked something out on their own, in the end. Iryna shrugged. She still wasn't entirely sure how _that_ had ended up happening, but she had a feeling Nastasya would take after her mother in her stubborn refusal to listen as well as her obsession.

Nonetheless...She had a duty to her family. She had to _try_ to help, didn't she? Besides, she added, listening to the shrieks from outside, it was probably the only way she was going to get any help moving her things.

She walked over to her niece and dropped down next to her, turning the music off as she did so. That was just about the only thing that got Nastasya to look over at her, indignant. "Tetushka, why?" She demanded to know, still tugging her own hair into braids as she glared accusingly at Iryna.

"Because, Sweetheart, we need to have a talk," The Ukrainian started to explain.

"What about?" The Russian girl responded in an almost sullen tone, obviously not wanting to have this discussion at all.

"All this," Here Iryna gestured to everything from the radio to the platinum braids Nastasya was now twisting around one another, "Isn't very _healthy_ , Dear," She noted.

There was a long pause. Moscow didn't like to waste words. After all, she did speak, in a quiet, subdued way, "Mama said it would help..." She admitted.

 _Belarus_ would. _She_ had never seen the issue with obsession, Iryna recalled. "Help with what exactly?" She questioned, tactfully leaving her thoughts about Natalya's 'advice' out of the conversation.

"Well, the other option was getting him to fall in love with me...And apparently you can't _make_ people." Was the follow-up remark.

"No, you can't, she's right about that...But getting over him is, well, it's the hardest solution, but it's the only one that'll work in the end," Ukraine tried to explain, but her arm around the young woman in an attempt to make her feel better, aware that that wasn't easy to hear.

Nastasya shrugged her arm off, not usually one for physical affection anyway and starting to get annoyed. Over the last few days, she had been lectured about her love life too much and while Iryna was being kind about it, she was fed up. At least her mother had seemed to understand that she _loved_ him. Iryna was telling her to do something _impossible!_

She didn't answer her Aunt at all after reaching that conclusion, merely lapsing into an icy silence until the Ukrainian woman became uncomfortable and slunk out in search of someone else she could drag off the battleground to help her with her unpacking. While she called Belarus to one side, Nastasya thought hard about her situation.

Everyone seemed determined to _make_ her stop loving Francis. _She'd have to show them_. She'd _have_ to _win_ his heart somehow.


	9. Magic Or Peace?

A few days later, everything seemed to have settled down at Russia's house. Ukraine, with the help of her little sister, had successfully moved in on a more permanent basis, though she still insisted she was just visiting. The war between Minsk and her father had ended in a reluctant truce after Ivan broke one of the water guns by accidentally standing on it. Saint Petersburg had gone weirdly quiet and taken to his room.

Also still living more or less in her room, Moscow was scheming. She still _needed_ a way to win France's love. But no solution was presenting itself and the method she ended up resorting to would never have occurred to her were it not for her little sister.

Inna wasn't happy with the way her 'war' plan had worked out, let alone with the 'truce' that was in place until another water pistol was found. So, vaguely aware that her mother kept some carefully hidden occult books, that she was incidentally forbidden to touch after previous incidents with ghosts, the Belarusian girl crept into her parents' room.

Trying to recall where Natalya had hidden the books last time she had found them, Inna started to wander around the room. After a few moments, she remembered that they were in a drawer and yanked it open.

Pulling out a book, she peered at it. It was an old leather-bound book with occult symbols carved into its cover. Tracing them with her finger, the young woman stared at them curiously.

Well, the magic might help her fight her father, but...She did have a bad feeling about the idea. It seemed dangerous.

"Inna! What are you doing?" Nastasya's voice cut through her thoughts. The Russian woman had heard noises from her parents room and, aware that they were both out, had reluctantly got up to investigate them.

"Just...Uhh...Looking for something!" Inna called out, not wanting to tell her sister the whole truth, just in case there would trouble over it.

Her tone sounded suspicious to Nastasya, and the woman approached her younger sibling. Seeing the book cover, she stifled a gasp. "What are you using Mama's weird books for...? You shouldn't, you know. She says not to," She scolded, before adding, "Plus they look demonic," She murmured, fiddling with her cross necklace cautiously. Her religion was deeply important to her, and the symbols on the front of the book made her worry for the safety of her Little's Sister's soul.

"It's fine. It's just a little bit of magic! It'll be harmless and really helpful!" Inna argued, feigning innocence and making excuses.

"Are you sure about that? What will it even help with?" Moscow wouldn't relent and kept up her questioning.

Minsk faltered and tried to think of something that would convince her eldest sibling. Her real reasons certainly wouldn't, she was very sure Nastasya would disapprove of all her plans. "Um...Well, what's something you really want to do?" She wondered aloud, looking for a useful piece of information.

Nastasya's suspicion was temporarily overruled by her desire for Francis, "To win my love's heart!" She gushed without hesitation.

Sisterly urges to roll her eyes at the older woman's 'romance' took over for a second and Inna mumbled, "Ugh..." Under her breath, before turning her attention back to the issue in hand. "Well, we could use magic for that!" She told Nastasya, without actually knowing if that would work, as she hadn't had a proper chance to look at the book's content yet.

"Really? And it'll work?" An excited Russian woman squealed at her, before regaining her composure, "...Safely? Without Mama's wrath or any demonic occultism happening?" She began to interrogate her again, scepticism rising again now.

Inna flipped open the book and peered at the writing, fiddling through it in the hope of finding something of use. Just as Nastasya was starting to give up and thinking up returning to her room to gaze at pictures of Francis again, Inna cried out, "Got it!"

She held up the book, showing the page she was on to her sister. It read, 'Love Potion Recipe'. Her indigo eyes widening in surprise and intrigue, Nastasya gripped the book, pulling it closer and taking a brief look.

It didn't _look_ dangerous. Surely one little potion wouldn't hurt? And if it would bring her and Francis together, then it _must_ be good! This 'logic' convincing her, the Muscovite nodded, "Alright, if you help me with this, I'll help you with...Whatever you're planning to use the magic for." She decided.

Minsk's eyes lit up too. She hadn't been expecting _help._ She would have settled for showing her that magic was okay and therefore, persuading her to go away. Normally, Nastasya would oppose any of her anti-Russia plans. "Deal!" She cheered, jumping up and dumping the book in Nastasya's arms. "Alright, you tell me what we need, I'll help you." She told her.

"Okay..." Moscow began to read the recipe again. "We need some water, a bowl, a spoon, a strainer and some Coriander seeds..." She read aloud. "Well, that should be easy enough. If you just raid the kitchen, I'll get ready..."

Unsure what 'getting ready' would entail but with no particular concerns about stealing a few little things from the kitchen, Inna nodded and hurried off. There wasn't anyone downstairs, with Ilya hiding in his room, Iryna reorganising the things Natalya had helped her move and Natalya and Ivan on a 'date' somewhere, so her mission was pretty easy.

Grabbing a cup, a bowl, a spoon, a strainer and a tray from various cupboards, Inna filled up the cup, found some seeds in the fridge and poured them into a bowl, then placed everything on the tray to make it easy to take upstairs.

Satisfied with her work, she went back to her parents' room to find her sister sitting on the bed, chanting her Beloved's name. The Belarusian cautiously placed the tray down on the bed beside Nastasya and stood back, waiting for her to finish. She felt a little uncomfortable, unsure that this had been a good idea after all. This 'love' thing had been making her sister act very oddly.

Still sitting in silence, Nastasya strained the seeds into the water, tipped them into the bowl and started mixing up her potion. Then she set it aside on Belarus's bedside table. "It needs time now." She explained, unnecessarily. "What is it you want to do with this?" She gestured to the book as she questioned her.

"It's..." Inna picked up the book and began her hunt for something she was able to use against her father, _"This!"_ She added at last, triumphant as she pointed to a curse.

Now that she had secured a way of winning Francis, Moscow's powers of judgement had returned and she raised an eyebrow at the title of the page. Something about a 'Deathly curse'. "Sestra, this is dangerous! What is it for?!" She started to lecture and interrogate her.

Inna sighed and rolled her eyes. She should have realised it was too good to be true. "It'll be fine! I'm sure Papa won't get badly hurt...Anyway, you promised to help!" She whined.

"I'm not helping you hurt Papa!" Nastasya insisted, folding her arms firmly.

"You said-" Minsk started to argue back, but, in their enthusiasm for the whole magical situation, the two girls had grown loud. Overhearing, Iryna had barged into the room, worrying for her nieces in the commotion.

"Girls, what's going on?" The Ukrainian asked, but she had hardly finished the sentence before her eyes strayed to the book in Inna's hands. She gasped and snatched it, "This isn't a toy!" She tutted at them.

Shutting the book, she shooed them both back to their rooms. Nastasya sneakily grabbed her potion as she slunk out after her irritated young sister. Both were annoyed at getting caught but nonetheless disappeared to their rooms. Iryna started to tidy up her siblings' room, sighing at the trouble that always seemed to be taking place around her.

Well, she had put a stop to the magical games and everything else was quiet now. Perhaps things would be quieter now. She finished tidying, sat on the end of the bed and prayed for a little peace in all their lives.


	10. Meetings, Plans And Holidays

Quiet did come, in a rather unsettling way. It might have seemed on the surface as though Iryna's prayers had been answered, but in reality, it was the fragile calm before the storm, only there due to the fact that all three of the cities had taken to their rooms now.

Inna was sulking at her failed plot. Ilya's strange silent behaviour was still unexplained. Nastasya was plotting yet again, her magic potion swirling around in a jar on her bedside table.

She had to get Francis to drink it and she had devised a plan to ensure that he would. Granted, it involved yet more dubious activity, but she was growing used to that. Besides, it was done in the name of love. How _could_ it be wrong?

This was what the Muscovite told herself as she logged into her father's emails. Her laptop allowed her access easily enough and she had learnt Ivan's password simply because he found it hard to say no to his daughter. Anyway, she had promised to only use it when she was helping him with business.

...This was _technically_ helping with business. She just had ulterior motives.

The message she sent seemed innocent and business-like enough. It was merely an invitation for Russia's allies to have their next meeting at his house. But of course, this was part of Moscow's plan.

If, she reasoned, she could get Francis to come over, an opportunity to use the potion would undoubtedly present itself. But the way everyone had been over her love for him, it seemed unlikely that he would accept an invitation directly from her asking to spend time alone. Whereas a meeting was perfectly harmless and therefore a wonderful excuse.

Invitation sent, she sat and impatiently stared at the screen, awaiting a response.

Meanwhile, aware that her prayers hadn't exactly brought about normal family life, Iryna had decided to tie up the loose ends. First of all, this meant finding out what was the matter with her nephew.

Knocking on his bedroom door eventually brought Ilya to the door, which he opened just a crack to peer through. He gave his aunt a sweet 'innocent' grin by way of greeting. Iryna knew to take this as a reason to be suspicious. "What are you doing?" She asked him sternly.

"Nothing!" The young boy insisted.

The Ukrainian woman raised an eyebrow, "Really?" She questioned, highly doubtful.

"Da, obviously!" He continued to insist.

Iryna was still pretty sure she didn't trust him but was trying to find a reasonable way to challenge him that would end up with her finding the truth, not with Ilya having a tantrum.

"Well, can I come in then?" She asked him.

Instantly, a guilty expression crossed his face. "Uhh..."

Got you, Iryna thought. "Why would that be an issue?" She enquired in a sweet tone.

Ilya knew he was caught and sighed deeply, "Fine, come in and I'll explain my plans. Don't tell Mama and Papa though..." He added, backing up enough to let his aunt in.

Ukraine stepped inside to discover that, at some point, her nephew had acquired a plastic axe from somewhere. This was a little anti-climatic, she had been expecting more than a toy, given his refusal to let her in. But it was also a relief to know there was nothing too serious going on here.

"So...What's the plan?" She asked him, curious to know why he was messing about with this toy anyway and what he had meant by 'plans'.

"I have a weapon!" He cheered, "I can use it to scare all the nations into doing what _I_ want!"

 _Okay,_ Iryna thought, obviously another one of his mental 'I want to rule the World' plans. It probably wasn't a very serious one, after all, he hardly saw the other nations and an obviously plastic axe wouldn't intimidate them in any case.

That issue resolved in her mind, she laughed and nodded along with him, not taking it seriously, before leaving him to his schemes.

While her brother had been revealing his latest tricks to their aunt, Nastasya had received confirmation from multiple nations about the meeting and had smugly past this news over to her father.

Now she was waltzing around her bedroom impatiently, both wanting tomorrow's meeting to arrive and planning out how it would go in her mind. That was how she spent the rest of her day and most of her night since she hardly slept because of her excitement.

When then the morning dawned, the Russian girl was the first person up. She spent a few more hours planning out her day, before making sure she had a potion jar safely in her coat pocket and getting herself prepared.

The guests had started arriving so she began making drinks as she had planned. When she had made coffee to give to Francis, she pulled out the jar and opened it, going to pour it into the drink.

It was at this moment that Ilya, who had discovered that there was a meeting taking place, chose to test his new plan. He ran through the kitchen, looking for victims. As he did, his axe clipped the back of Moscow's knee, making her jump. She tried her best not to swear, losing concentration on the jar and spilling it over all the mugs.

She turned her attention back to the drinks just in time to stare in horror as purple bubbles frothed around the tops of all the drinks. In the background, she could just make out the gleeful yelps of her little brother as he attempted to terrorise everyone. It wasn't working, she could also hear laughter.

But she wasn't paying that much attention, zoning out due to shock that her precious plan hadn't gone how she wanted it to. She had spent so many hours fantasising about how it would go and had convinced herself it couldn't go any other way.

Well...She couldn't just give up that easily! She grabbed one of the mugs to take to Francis and set off. But some of the spilt potion was in a puddle on the floor, causing her to slip and fall.

A number of Russian swearwords escaped her lips as the mug smashed. Laying on the ground, she had the reluctant realisation that this plan was most likely going to fail.

Ilya seemed to have enjoyed his plan. But Nastasya glared into the meeting room and thought... _I need a new plan!_

She got up, still cursing under her breath, and stormed back to her room, leaving the chaos behind her for someone else to deal with. She had planning to do. Except...She was struggling to think of anything new. Even more distressingly, she found herself doubting if it was a good idea.

She _loved_ Francis, of course she did. But not only did everyone else insist that making him fall in love with her too was a bad idea, finding herself in this ridiculous situation over her plans to do so made her question herself. Obviously what she was doing was silly. Not to mention that her sister had dragged her into this magic thing in the first place when she had known it was a bad idea to dabble in the occult.

Probably that spell had some kind of Demonic influence anyway. And whatever was drawing her to him was messing with her life, how could she say it wasn't evil?

In her hard times, Nastasya would turn to her religious beliefs to justify things, becoming more devout to distract herself. She reluctantly started to take down the pictures of Francis that lined her room, ignoring the sounds of screams as her Little Brother caused chaos downstairs. She needed a distraction now, because she, however hard it was, it was time to start getting over this insane crush.

While Nastasya hesitantly came to her senses, Ilya was enjoying trying to scare people from theirs. It wasn't working, eight-year-olds are hardly terrifying, even when armed with plastic. But there was still screaming, because, when threatening people hadn't achieved the desired reaction, he had resorted to violence.

It had started when England had made the mistake of laughing at the Russian boy when threatened. He laughed and said, "You're a funny little chap, aren't you?"

Then Ilya had hit him on the nose with the axe. _Hard._

The Englishman had doubled over, clutching his bleeding nose and France and America had decided to laugh at this scene. Ilya had taken this as a further insult and ran at America, who had run away, but not before tactlessly shouting at Russia, "Dude, your son's a psycho too!"

Ivan had responded to this insult by tripping him up. But the responsible part of him also ensured he grabbed his son before Ilya could pounce on the fallen Alfred and tugged the axe out of his hands. "Do not insult my child," He advised the American, "But Ilyushka, no hitting people with toy axes. Wait until Mama says you're old enough to have a real one, da?" He added, pocketing Saint Peterburg's latest toy.

Though the small boy very reluctantly took this advice, no one was very comforted by it and the meeting soon ended without much work having been done. It also ended without either Russian sibling having achieved their original goals and with a lot of mess in their house.

Fortunately, Ukraine had found the kitchen in the state Moscow had abandoned it in and tidied up. The rest of the mess didn't take too long to put right and, with all the plans foiled, things slowly began to return to normal once the meeting was over.

Over the next few days, the family noticed Moscow return to almost normal, no longer obsessed with France but slightly more passionate about everything else in an attempt to distract herself. Ilya went back to making new World domination plans again and Inna finally stopped sulking as much and went back to her normal amount of sulkiness. Which wasn't a huge improvement, but it was still something.

Relieved that things were more or less normal again but, after the failed meeting, ready for a break, Ivan decided that the family was overdue a holiday.

So a new adventure reared its head...


	11. A Holiday And An Enemy

The holiday preparation began with some rather rushed packing, people throwing various things into their bags madly in order to get started with their break. There were a few issues at the packing stage. Firstly, Iryna grumbled a little as she did hers since it didn't seem like that long since she was unpacking after moving her stuff into her brother's house.

Then Natalya irritated her children by insisting on checking their bags were _properly_ packed before they went anywhere. This turned out to be a good idea, as the searches brought up a gun and several bottles of vodka in Nastasya's luggage, a makeshift knife made from a sharpened stone she'd found in Inna's bag and the fact that Ilya hadn't considered packing any socks important, preferring to take his 'World Domination Journal'.

The majority of these items were removed and placed at the back of Belarus and Russia's wardrobe to ensure they _stayed_ out of the way for the foreseeable future, although Ivan insisted on drinking the vodka and Natalya had to source more socks for Ilya before they could go anywhere.

But these were minor hurdles and were swiftly crossed. It wasn't long until they were all in the car, luggage stacked up around them, because Natalya despised airport security, who she claimed were 'unreasonable' about the travel warnings issued against her. So they had to drive over to their chosen holiday destination in Germany. With Ilya making 'invasion' jokes the whole time and Ivan's laughter totally overriding Iryna's attempts to discourage such comments.

Eventually, the jokes stopped as Ilya fell asleep on the long journey. The others ended up asleep as well, and Natalya took over the driving to let her brother sleep too. That wasn't necessarily a good idea as the Belarusian was more inclined to road rage and woke various family members up along the way by shouting obscenities out of the open window whenever someone's driving failed to meet her standards.

All in all, the journey was the worst part of the preparation for their holiday. But once they arrived, checked into their hotel and got their luggage into their rooms, everything seemed to be looking up.

As soon as they were settled in, Ilya started demanding to go to the beach. So they all set off to the nearest beach, where Natalya declared happily that the view was 'beautiful and romantic' and dragged Ivan off to find a less busy area for a 'date', leaving Iryna to supervise the children. The Ukrainian woman sighed and sat down on the sand where she could watch the antics of her nieces and nephew.

Nastasya sat nearby, idly drawing hearts in the sand with her finger before occasionally catching herself doing it, muttering irritably and wiping them away. Ukraine decided that, after the last time she tried to help the girl with her love life, she would stay out of that and let her figure things out for herself. She was near enough to an adult now, after all, even if she seemed to be going through some confusing emotional phase at the moment.

Iryna turned her gaze to the others. Inna had wandered into the water, where she could be alone, in peace and quiet that was all too rare at home. The Ukrainian supposed there wasn't anything wrong with that, so long as she kept a look out to make sure the Belarusian girl didn't wander too far in, going out of her depth or out of sight.

Next, she started to look for Ilya. She didn't have to look very hard. The Russian boy had spent some time making a huge sandcastle, which he was now standing on top of, grinning and insisting that he was now the king of this beach.

She wondered whether to ignore this, as she was sure it wasn't wise to indulge his fantasies as much as his doting parents did, but she didn't get time to dwell on that thought. Suddenly, something launched itself at his castle and started to destroy it, diving in headfirst and digging like a dog until the castle crumbled, leaving Ilya to fall sharply on his bum.

The head emerged from the pile of sand. Iryna realised it belonged to another small child, about the same age as her nephew, albeit a very sandy, scruffy child of indeterminable gender. The child gave a snigger. It was an oddly familiar sound, "Kesese, not so almighty now, are you?" They teased.

Ilya growled something about someone looking for trouble and the Ukrainian woman leapt up hurriedly, ready to stop a fight. Then two familiar figures appeared with similar intentions.

"Eliza? Gilbert?" She questioned as Prussia and Hungary arrived on the scene, Elizaveta pulling her offspring from a crumbling heap of sand while Gilbert tried and failed to hide his laughter.

"Oh, hey Uku," The Hungarian woman greeted her affectionately, elbowing her husband in the ribs. "Sorry, Gabi ran off again," She apologised for the messy incident, giving her child a disapproving glare until they shuffled behind Prussia and wrapped their arms around his legs, "Vati supports me," They muttered grumpily.

"Ja, stick it to the Russkie," Gilbert agreed, starting to laugh before Hungary's glare silenced him too.

"I didn't know you were here too," Iryna cut in before she got caught up in a family dispute. As she spoke, she picked Ilya up out of the remains of his destroyed sand castle and took his hand, both to comfort the irate young boy and to keep him from pouncing on Gabi.

"I was just about to say the same to you!" Elizaveta remarked, "We live fairly nearby so it's just a family day out, but I didn't think you lot would be here," She pointed out.

"It's a family holiday, we're here for a week," Iryna explained.

"Sweet, we'll get to spend some more time together and catch up," Her Hungarian friend said enthusiastically. Prussia, given his feelings about the Ukrainian's family members, seemed less enthusiastic. Saint Petersburg was completely outraged, "Tetushka, tell her nyet! I don't like these people!" He complained.

Iryna laughed awkwardly, "Well, we'll see how it goes," She commented, trying to pacify both sides. It might have worked, had Gabi not chosen that moment to stick their tongue out at Ilya, making him growl.

The Ukrainian woman looked from her nephew to her friend's family. This was going to be an interesting holiday...


	12. Enemies?

Iryna thought it wisest to keep the whole incident with Hungary and her family from her siblings when they returned. It would only make Natalya spit foul curses and demand that this idiotic Prussian paid dearly for attacking her precious little boy. And Ivan would undoubtedly agree with her. Then all Hell would break loose.

Besides Ilya was pacified, already building a new, improved version of his castle while Elizaveta had managed to drag both her husband and mischievous child further along the beach, away from the East Slavic family.

So, for a short while, peace ruled the beach again. Natalya and Ivan returned from their 'date' with ice-creams, luring Inna out of the increasingly deep water and snapping Nastasya away from her heart-shaped doodling.

But unfortunately, as far as Iryna's little plan was concerned, Ilya also sidled over, still watching his latest building project out of the corner of his eye. Taking his ice-cream, he then demanded, "Mama, lend me one of your weapons!"

"Nyet, we're on holiday, I only have one with me and I might need it. Why would you want one anyway?" The Belarusian responded questioningly.

"To keep the attackers away," Her son told her promptly. "When you went away my old castle got attacked," He revealed.

"Who 'attacked' you?" The mother kept up her interrogation, though not very seriously, she assumed that the 'attack' had been some form of game between her children. Well, given that 'wars' had erupted before now, it was hardly a surprise that Natalya's mind went straight to childish antics. And she wasn't really _wrong_ , per se...

"Some nasty little German..." Her surly son muttered. Iryna sighed and put down the knitting project she had brought with her to work on. There wasn't going to be any peace and quiet, so she might as well just tell the truth.

"Prussia and Hungary are here, they brought their child and I guess they wanted to play with Ilya, so they started fighting on the castle..." She tried to explain.

Ilya protested, "It wasn't a _game!_ I was just charged at!" He argued.

Instantly, and just as Ukraine had predicated to herself, Natalya's eyes narrowed and Ivan, who had been quietly listening in, was surrounded by a mildly murderous aura. Neither Prussia nor Hungary were on good terms with the Russian, and now they, collectively, along with their offspring, had upset his son. And in the process, his wife, who growled, "Well, if _I_ see this attacker, things will be different!"

Iryna tried to intervene, she didn't want their holiday to begin with a fight on the beach. Besides, her siblings really shouldn't be threatening to fight small children. "Natasha, let's be reasonable about this, Elizaveta already apologised..." She assured her irate sister, hoping her friend's attempts to resolve the matter might help to reassure the more aggressive members of her family.

"Did her rampaging little one apologise?" Her unconvinced sister retorted, still annoyed.

Before the Ukrainian could, very good-naturedly, lie, Ilya interrupted, "Nyet!" He pointed out, obviously still irritated by the issue.

Ivan took over making things up to his son before Natalya set out to hunt the other child down. "Then we'll make sure they do, da? But finish your ice-cream first," He tried to give the young boy time to calm down. Not to mention hoping Natalya would calm down as well.

This failed as well. Saint Petersburg merely gulped down the rest of his ice-cream as fast as he could, then jumped up, pointing, "They went that way! Are you going to help me get justice, Mama? Papa?" He demanded to know.

Natalya was about to get up, when Ivan interrupted, _"I'll_ go," He told her. He was annoyed as well, but he didn't want his angry little sister attacking some kid. It would only make for more trouble.

Unfortunately for the Russian man, Iryna had the same view of her obviously angry little _brother._ "Nyet, you two enjoy your holiday together, I'll take Ilya to see if they're still around," She assured them, grabbing her nephew's hand before his parents got an opportunity to refuse.

She hurried him along the beach a little way, planning to pretend not to see her friend's family so that they could go back to resting again. But she was foiled by a vengeance-fuelled Russian child. "They're over there!" He pointed, before trying to run towards them, only stopping when her arm didn't give.

She sighed, "Alright, let's go over and talk it out then," She agreed reluctantly, heading over and gently tapping her Hungarian friend on the shoulder.

Elizaveta spun around and smiled at the Ukrainian woman, "Oh hey again, come to join us after all?" She asked, while Gabi, who she was holding at the time, looked down at Ilya with disdain, getting a similar look in return.

"No, not exactly, although maybe we will later," Iryna tried to start out friendly and non-committal, before saying, "It's just, Ilya's still a little upset about earlier and I was wondering if it'd help these two make up if they _both"_ Here there was a brief exchange of glares between Aunt and Nephew. Iryna won and kept talking, "Apologised for what happened," She finished her suggestion and waited, a little nervously for a reply.

The Hungarian mother nodded, "Good idea," She set her child down in front of Ilya, "Go on, little terror, make up now," She urged.

There was a stony silence as the two young Cities glowered at one another. Finally, Gabi began, "Fine...I guess I'm sorry. Even though I still hate your face. And your castle sucks. I can do better." The string of mostly insults dressed up as an apology prompted a facepalm from Hungary and a thumbs-up from Prussia.

To Iryna's surprise, Ilya's anger did subside a little bit, and he grinned, "Alright, if _that's_ how you're going to be, I'm sorry too. Even though you're a scruffy, dirty, troublemaker whose beneath me. Also, if that's a challenge, prepare to lose," He responded.

"Is that the best we're getting?" Iryna asked Elizaveta as the two children tore away from their guardians to start their contest.

"I guess so," Hungary answered. Gilbert draped an arm around her, "Just like us when we were kids, huh, Hun?" Elizaveta giggled and hugged him.

Iryna shrugged, guessing that that was the best outcome they were likely to get. At least frenemies were better than sworn enemies. And her friends reminiscing over their relationship was better than them having a parental war with Natalya and Ivan.


	13. Relationships And Stowaways

Now that Ilya had not exactly calmed down, but was at least distracted with his new frenemy, the rest of the family could go about their holiday in their own ways without him disturbing them.

Ivan and Natalya, in between keeping an eye on their offspring to make sure nothing got too out of hand again, spent their time wrapped up in one another, with the Belarusian woman insisting that everything they did together was a date and so incredibly romantic, while Ivan was merely glad to see his sister happy and thankful that she wasn't kicking up a fuss about not getting enough attention for once in a while.

Ilya spent the days tearing around causing chaos with Gabi. Nastasya was still distracted, trying unsuccessfully to convince herself that she was over Francis. All this seemed to be happening with, given the families' usual shenanigans, relative peace and quiet.

So Iryna took advantage of a quiet moment and conveniently close location in order to pop over the German-Belgian border and visit her partner. She and her long-term girlfriend, Belgium, had been together for almost twenty years now. She had no doubt that they would be married by now if her constitution would allow it. But unfortunately, their genders made having a marriage both their nations would recognise impossible. And their duties as Nations made seeing one another on a regular basis hard.

So at the moment, they had to make do with days, weeks and very rarely months, like this vacation, that they could steal away from other duties to spend together. Sometimes when she returned to Kiev, Emma would visit her there. And she frequented the Belgian's home as well. But it had been a while since she had seen her girlfriend, the other woman didn't visit her as often when she was at her family home. It was usually too chaotic for them to have any quality time together in any case...

But now she knew her relatives were otherwise engaged, so she borrowed her brother's car and drove to the other woman's home to surprise her, in an excited frenzy all the way.

In fact, she was so excited that she failed to notice that she was no longer alone. Inna, in one of her rebellious moods again, had decided to escape the watchful gazes of her protective parents by stowing away in the car. The Belarusian woman still had a great deal of issues with her family. Her mother had managed to comfort her somewhat last time they had discussed those problems, and she actually still carried the crumbled note she had written in and subsequently torn from her diary that day in her pocket, but little words only did so much.

Her issues ran deep, and on the long, uncomfortable journey in the boot of the car, she thought them over. A handful of them she struggled to put her finger on herself. Even before she had been jaded by an education that made her believe her father had wilfully misled her, she had resented him. Partly, she disliked being told what to do from an early age and partly she despised his over-protectiveness.

The fact that her mother was even more over-protective didn't and also told her what to do phased her less. Her mother was at least linked to her as a Nation to her Capital City. She felt Russia had less right to interfere with her. Then her historical and cultural research had revealed the extent of this 'interference', the erasing of her mother's separate identity and therefore her own identity, thus making the problem ten times worse.

Part of her wanted to forget all of these things that she had found out and used to fuel her resentment. That way she would be able to be like her mother, happy to lean on the Russian man without craving independence. But most of her wanted time away from her family, to make her own identity and find freedom.

So she had taken the opportunity to get away with her Aunt. The car rattled over German ground and eventually reached Belgium and Iryna stopped at her girlfriend's home. When they stopped moving, Inna finally felt safe to reveal herself and pushed open the boot.

The Ukrainian woman, who was halfway up her partner's drive, stopped and stared in shock as her niece's head emerged from the car, knocking Iryna's own luggage out as well. "What on Earth are you doing here?!" She gasped when the ability to speak returned to her.

Inna sighed guiltily, "I...I needed a bit of a break," She admitted, "I'm sorry, I just..."

Iryna, soft-hearted as usual, cut her off hurriedly, "Sweetie, why didn't you just say? It's fine, it'll be fine," She assured her. "I'll just let Emma know we're both here," She added, aware that _she_ was meant to be a surprise for her girlfriend, let alone her teenaged niece.

"Will she mind?" Inna asked, still nervous. She had never met her Aunt's partner before and suddenly felt like she shouldn't be here, intruding on their time together.

"No, of course not!" The older woman told her, silently wondering if Emma _would_ mind or not. Well, there was only one way to find out, wasn't there? She knocked on the door and waited.

A few moments later, Emma rushed to her front door and opened it. As soon as she saw her girlfriend, she threw her arms around the Ukrainian woman enthusiastically. "It's been ages since I saw you, I can't believe you're here!" She gushed.

Iryna smiled and hugged her tightly in return, kissing her cheek, "I thought I'd surprise you, Dear," She told her happily. For a moment, she forgot about her surprise stowaway and embraced her original reason for being there.

"It's the best surprise," The Belgian replied, pulling away from her a little, preparing to urge her lover inside and catch up, but instead catching a glimpse of the Belarusian girl standing behind them awkwardly, with Ukraine's luggage still scattered on the ground behind her as well.

"Who's this?" She asked curiously.

Iryna looked back, "This is my niece, Inna, she needs a place to stay for a few days," She kept her explanation short and sweet, not wanting to spill out the whole sordid family drama right now.

"You better both come in then," Belgium replied with a smile. The fallen luggage was picked up and the three women headed inside.

Meanwhile, in a German holiday resort, Natalya dragged her family members back to their rooms again after a long but fun day at the beach. She was clinging to her brother's arm as they walked in, with Ilya swinging off her other hand babbling excitedly about his latest antics with his friends. Nastasya walked along behind her. The Belarusian woman was aware of her elder sister's trip but suddenly, now the family were gathered together again, not going about their own business on the beach, her daughter's absence dawned on her.

She froze up, stopping so sharply that Ilya fell over, getting up grumbling as Nastasya ran into her mother's back and muttered in irritation, "What's going on?"

"Where's Inna?!" Natalya demanded to know. A short search of their rooms revealed that no one knew right now. Panic started to set in. This wasn't the first time Inna had disappeared on a family vacation but this time it was proving harder to find her.

Last time, her mother had located her via a handy GPS tracker she had fitted to all of her family members' clothing. But that required the opportunity to connect to the internet and they hadn't paid for wi-fi at the resort.

Ivan ran around all the places they had been questioning the locals, but eventually, the police were called. Initially because a large, intimidating Russian man was running around demanding answers from frightened tourists, but when the situation was explained, the case became a frantic search for the missing teen.

Sitting on Belgium's couch contentedly, Inna had no idea of the trouble she had caused. She had waited quietly for her Aunt and their hostess to find somewhere for the Ukrainian's luggage and was now sipping some juice Emma had given her while they all sat around, talking.

For a while, she was able to tune out of the conversation and enjoy some simple peace and quiet, her usual worries out of her mind, as the couple caught up. Then Belgium, still slightly surprised to have her girlfriend's niece show up all of a sudden, turned the discussion back to the teen.

"So, why did you need somewhere to stay, again?" She asked her. Inna looked over at Ukraine, wondering how best to explain the situation without making things awkward for her aunt.

Iryna sighed, "Inna's sort of...A long story," She tried to explain without _actually_ explaining.

Unfortunately, all this did was pique the Belgian woman's interest. "She, personally, _is_ a long story?" She questioned, baffled by her partner's selection of words, "Then I want to hear it," She added, still wanting to know what was going on here.

"Well..." Minsk began nervously, "I suppose the reason I'm here is that I wanted a break from the rest of my family," She admitted.

"That's not a long story...What's the rest?" Emma demanded to know, suddenly interested in the family drama. She usually managed to avoid getting dragged into the Ukrainian woman's unique family's dramas, but she had to admit she was curious. She had only ever met Ukraine's siblings and their eldest daughter, so she didn't know a lot about the others...

The Belarusian teenager looked surprised by her interest. She was used to being asked _not_ to talk about her issues or start more drama. Being _asked_ to explain was a novelty. "I don't really get along with my father. And no one appears to understand that," She started to explain. Then she relaxed, having an interested audience for once and opened up. "Well, he just wants to tell me what to do all the time, for no reason!" She argued, "And anyway, how can Mama expect me to love him when he's the reason our language and our culture aren't recognised? And his so-called education _lied_ to me!"

Now the girl was ranting angrily and Belgium looked as though she was regretting asking, looking over Inna's head at Iryna with a 'What have I got myself into?' expression. But she rallied, trying to calm her down, "You know that's his government's fault, not him personally, right?" She questioned, "And he only tells you what to do because he wants to keep you safe," She told her.

Seeing anger still burning in her eyes, she tried again, "Look, I get it, really. My brother and I didn't use to be on good terms because of some...Political stuff I'd rather not talk about," She revealed, "But I put it behind me and we're doing...Alright, I guess, now."

Inna fell silent for a while, surprised again. She was used to people trying to talk her out of her dislike of her father, but never by trying to relate to her side of the story. Some of this was making sense too.."I'll...Think about that." She conceded, looking over at her Aunt's girlfriend with a sort of grudging respect. She didn't know the woman well, but she had shown her things in a new light...

Iryna recognised the look on her niece's face as an unusually calm one and smiled, mouthing, "Thanks!" Over the teenager's head at her girlfriend, grateful that the stowaway dilemma appeared to be resolved now.

The newly peaceful atmosphere lasted barely a minute before it was shattered by sirens screeching around the house. Iryna jumped, startled and twitched the curtain aside to look out. Representatives of the German and Belgian police surrounded the house.

She turned to look at Inna, who was shifting guiltily in her seat. "You didn't tell your parents where you were, did you?" She demanded to know, already aware of the answer.

Five minutes later, after a confession from the girl, she bundled her out of the door and presented her, unarmed, to the assembled police. Thankfully, she didn't have to explain the whole awful story as her sister pushed her way out of one of the police cars, shoving a disgruntled German police officer aside and running through the crowd to grab her daughter.

As the Belarusian alternated between hugging her tightly and angrily explaining what must have happened to the police as she scolded her runaway daughter, things became clearer. After a long talk about not doing stupid, dangerous things and wasting police time again, Minsk was allowed to leave with her parents, while her Aunt stayed behind to enjoy time with her partner in peace.

But not before Inna hugged them both goodbye and thanked Emma gratefully for letting her stay and listening to her. To Ivan's surprise, when she got back to him, he got a hug as well.

It was just possible that Iryna's relationship might have helped repair Inna and Ivan's relationship as well...


	14. Crimes And Happiness

Iryna stayed behind in Belgium to spend some quality time with her girlfriend now they would _actually_ be able to relax together, free from the madness and mayhem that was Iryna's family.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned family collected their borrowed car, promised to pick her up whenever she wanted, then made their way back to Germany to finish off their holiday. For Inna, the journey was painfully awkward. Questions, comments and rants came at her from all sides.

"Why did you do that? I thought you were gone forever!" Ivan told her dramatically, paying far more attention to his not-so-long-lost daughter than the road he was driving on. Some unsuspecting Belgian road users swerved to avoid him, without him even noticing.

The Belarusian girl sighed, "I'm sorry," She said, in a groaning tone that implied the apology was insincere. But she was thinking of her father differently at the moment, so she merely apologised and kept her thoughts to herself.

"The police chase was fun though," Ilya chimed in, having enjoyed the dramatic scene a little too much.

"No, it wasn't!" Natalya snapped, "Don't you dare do anything like that again!" She rebuked her Capital City sharply.

Inna didn't bother responding to that, she just sighed. The eventful trip had had some useful points, but the aftermath was certainly a pain to deal with. Only her sister had kept quiet about her outing. She glanced over at Nastasya curiously. While some peace and quiet was a mercy, it was also surprising. Last time she had run away, her sister had seemed most concerned and had demanded that she never did it again.

"Are you okay, Siastra?" She asked her softly.

For a long while, there was no response. Then Nastasya looked up suddenly, as though it had only just occurred to her that Inna had spoken. "Hm? Da...I guess so." She nodded.

Ilya cut in again, "She's moping about some man again!" He revealed with a gleeful grin that was reserved for annoying people he thought of as enemies or rivals. His oldest sister was usually included in that category.

The Russian woman didn't bother with a verbal response, simply settling for giving her little brother a sharp shove then lapsing into silence again. The boy stuck his tongue out at her, before turning his attention back to Inna's latest ordeal instead.

"So what's it like, being chased by the police?" He asked.

"I didn't _know_ I was being chased...I didn't think people would call the cops on me..." She muttered, irritated by all this attention.

"We had to, I thought someone ran off with you!" Ivan interjected, still dramatic about the whole situation.

"And my trackers weren't working..." Natalya pointed out, explaining further.

Saint Petersburg ignored his parents' interruptions. "Well that's boring," He commented, "I thought it'd be more badass. Still, I guess it would if you had actually done something _exciting,"_ He added, grumbling a little bit.

Natalya butted in again sharply, "Stop encouraging your sister to be a criminal!" She ordered.

"It'd be cool though..." Ilya muttered, "Guess I'll do it myself when I'm older. Gabi will probably help me," He decided, starting to sound like he was planning out his whole future career as a criminal mastermind. His mother rolled her eyes at this but didn't bother to comment on it. After all, his usual ambitions included World domination, so this was probably an improvement.

Minsk, on the other hand, wanted to change the subject and get the attention off herself, so she didn't let it go as easily. "Oh, you two are suddenly best buddies and partners in crime now, are you?" She retorted.

"Nyet, we're not _friends._ We just hang out sometimes. And so I think they would help me out," Ilya answered.

Inna raised an eyebrow at that suggestion but opted not to say anything more on that topic. It had been a long day and there was a lot on her mind. She wasn't really in the mood to argue with her little brother about his potential partner in crime, should he decide to become a career criminal at some point in the future.

She wanted to sleep for a while, tired after an eventful day. But really, deep down, she was surprised to find that she wanted to talk to her parents privately, especially her father. Her time with her Aunt and Emma had made her think.

Eventually, when they were back at their resort, Ilya was at Prussia and Hungary's house playing with Gabi and Nastasya was moping somewhere by herself, she got the opportunity she had been waiting for.

"Papa...?" She began hesitantly.

Ivan looked up. He _had_ been enjoying the peace and quiet, sitting down to watch the TV for a bit. But it was rare enough for Inna to talk to him without sounding angry that he considered this must be worth listening to. "Da, what is it, Sweetheart?" He asked.

"When I was...With Tetushka Irunya and her partner, we were talking about you," The young girl revealed.

Now the Russian man hesitated a bit. His sister was a sweet-hearted woman and they were personally close, but current political relations between Russia and Ukraine were strained, then there was his youngest daughter's usual view of him...Who knew what they might have been saying about him?

His impatient wife sat up from where she had been snuggled into his side, managing to elbow him in the ribs in the process. Oblivious to this, she butted into the discussion, wanting to know what was going on. "What were you saying?" Belarus demanded to know. In her opinion, if anyone was talking about her Beloved Big Brother, it was automatically _her_ business.

"Well, I told Miss Emma why I was cross with you," Ivan raised his eyebrows at Inna's remark. She had never bothered telling _him_ why she was cross with him. But he didn't say as much, because Minsk was already continuing, "And she said it's not your fault. It's your Government." She stated, waiting to see what he made of that.

Ivan squirmed awkwardly, not entirely sure what she was talking about and not really wanting to get into a political discussion right now. He settled for admitting, "Well, she's probably right, Petal. Part of being a Nation is sometimes having a Government who you don't personally agree with all the time, da? But whatever my current, past or even future Governments have done or do to upset you, you should know that I personally love you."

There was a long silence from Inna. Then she spoke up, "Well, in that case, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume it was the Government's fault." She told him, "I suppose then...I forgive you." She added, before muttering something inaudible.

"Aww, spasiba, Petal. And what was that?"

She sighed, "Fine, I _said_ I love you too! Happy now?"

Ivan reached out both ways and pulled the two Belarusian woman into his arms, cuddling them contentedly. At long last, his Beloved family seemed to be at peace. His daughter's unexplained anger had subsided and they could _all_ be happy. "Very."


	15. Return And Love Dilemmas

With peace restored, the rest of the family holiday was more or less enjoyable. It wasn't perfect, a lifelong bad relationship wasn't likely to be repaired in an instant by well-meant words. But Inna was spending more time with her father that didn't involve scowling at him, and Ivan's hugs and kisses were no longer met with violence, so that was a start.

It got even better when Russia found a shop from which he was able to buy a new water pistol and suggested that they resume their war 'game'. This time it was more fun as all parties saw it as a game, not a serious war.

That didn't stop Inna getting two more water pistols and ganging up on her father with Ilya and his new friend, though. Gabi and Ilya were simply joining in for the chaos factor, causing trouble being their primary shared interest, but nevertheless, it allowed for some great family fun.

While the four of them ran shrieking and yelling around the resort and the local beaches, Natalya had stayed inside to make sure everything got packed away again for their return to Moscow the next day. After last time, she had decided the only way for this to get done properly was to do it herself.

During the Water War Two and Natalya's packing adventures, Nastasya was, as usual, sitting quietly in her room doing what her brother would have described as some serious moping.

She had made up her mind to get over Francis, then found it that it wasn't that simple. She tried focusing on other things that meant a lot to her, from her family to her religious faith, but she was unable to distract herself _enough._ She felt like she needed him. But she didn't _want_ to need him when everyone told her, and when she had made herself see, that it was unhealthy.

She hadn't seen him for ages, but space was only making him preying on her mind even more. Something had to be done and she didn't know what more she was able to do.

Her diary was already full of letters she'd never sent to him, pages of rants and even attempted poetry about the way he made her feel. She had doodled him on the back of it. For a while, she had been obsessed with everything French, until she bit her tongue trying to speak the language.

Either way, she was beginning to become more and more aware that she was dangerously obsessed with him, and she wanted to fix herself somehow. It had been on her mind all throughout her holiday and it still just wouldn't go away.

The Russian girl snapped out of her thoughts as she suddenly realised the shrieking outside had stopped and her mother was calling her name. It must be time to go. She got up numbly and wandered out to the car.

Her family were gathered around. Natalya was periodically shouting all of her children's names just to make sure they were there while she wrestled a stuffed suitcase into the boot, Ivan was already in the car waiting to leave. Inna was leaning on it, looking bored and impatient as she watched Ilya having a stare-off with Gabi.

The two new frenemies were supposed to be saying their goodbyes. Prussia and Hungary were standing nearby, waiting for their offspring and avoiding the other family, but neither child wanted to speak first. Eventually, Ilya broke the silence, "Well, I suppose this has been...interesting, but I have to go now," He said.

"Will you ever come back? I hope not..." Gabi muttered.

"I might do, just to annoy you." That said, Ilya walked away, looking over his shoulder every now and then to pull faces at the other, who retorted in kind.

Farewells thus concluded, the Slavic family piled into their car, ready to go. Nastasya gazed thoughtfully out of the window. Her mind was still full of her love issues. How was she going to fix this? She repeated this question thousands of times in her own head over the course of the long journey home.

It turned out a solution may have appeared while they were away. When they got home, she was greeted by a private letter. The return address was, she just happened to know, Francis's address.

Ignoring her younger siblings' mocking jeers and her parents exchanging concerned glances where they thought she wouldn't see them, the Muscovite shoved the letter into her pocket hastily, paused long enough to grab her luggage, then ran upstairs to the privacy of her own room.

There, she discarded her luggage carelessly in a corner and tore open the envelope, tugging out the letter with shaky hands.

The Frenchman had put a lot of time and thought into this letter. After all, he was still unaware that Nastasya had been trying to get over him. All that dwelled on his mind was that last time he had seen her, things had not gone well. Oh, _she_ had been happy enough, but there had been a big misunderstanding. As far as he knew, her father had been planning to sort this misunderstanding out for him.

But now his pride, not to mention his conscience, was hurting him. It was a pretty big deal to just sort out via a third party, simply because she made him nervous. It wasn't fair to her. He had to sort it out properly. But preferably without having to actually _speak_ to her again. So he had sat down and tried to put his thought together in the nicest way possible.

It hadn't been easy, but the letter that he finally sent read:

* * *

 _Dear Mademoiselle Nastasya,_

 _I think you may know by now what the situation between us really is. I'm sorry, I tried to explain it in a better way, but you seemed distracted at the time, so I thought it was for the best to get your Papa to talk to you when you were feeling calmer about everything. I hope you're not too hurt by this. I still think you're a sweet girl but, me and you, it's not really meant to be._

 _There are simply too many reasons why it would be complicated. Again, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Ma Ch_ é _rie._

 _All the best,_

 _Francis_

 _XXX_

* * *

Nastasya read it over a few times thoughtfully. What does he mean _reasons?_ She questioned herself. She had been struggling to process not being together. Perhaps have there were lots of good reasons, it would help her to know them. Maybe then she would see it the way he did, maybe she would simply see that any relationship between them would be impossible.

Too impatient after weeks of trying to fix this dilemma, she grabbed her phone instead and dialled his number, tensing wondering if he would pick up and how he would answer.

Eventually, there was a hesitant 'Bonjour?' From the other end of the phone.

"Privet, Francis," She responded, "I think we need to talk, da?"

"Why? What about?" He sounded on edge already. She bit her lip, wondering what was wrong and whether she had upset him. No, she would never, she decided, dismissing that thought almost instantly.

Getting back to the point, she answered, "I got your letter. What are these reasons you speak of?"

There was a pause. France wondered what to say. Did she really not see any reason why they shouldn't be together? Or was she simply trying to pressure him into a relationship? How should he handle this? He sighed and started simply stating the reasons he had thought of, leaving out the 'you're behaving like a creep' one for diplomatic reasons.

"Well, I don't really know you and you don't really know me," He pointed out.

"We would be able to get to know one another better," She argued, interrupting his reasoning.

"Oui, I suppose that's true, but it would be best to do that as friends only. You see, Ma Chérie, I'm an old nation, I've seen so much and had so many loves, but you are young. You have your whole life ahead of you to have _real_ lovers who will be in a better position to share those feelings with you," He tried to explain to her.

"But this _is_ real love, I can't stop thinking about you!" She insisted indignantly.

Francis sighed. "That's not how true love works. You're not in love with me, however much it feels that way. It's just a crush, oui? And they are so, so different."

"I don't understand," Nastasya was frowning now, deeply confused.

"Non, non, you wouldn't. I told you, you're young. But we can be friends, oui? And I'll teach you about true love," After the way she had acted before, it was difficult for the Frenchman to know if he _wanted_ to be friends with her, but he didn't want to be held responsible for breaking the young woman's heart. He knew how much heartbreak hurt, Belarus and Russia would probably murder him for hurting their little girl, and besides, knowing how odd her home life must be, he found it hard to think of her as anything besides a sad, confused child trying to deal with a World she knew nothing about. He wanted to help her.

For Nastasya's part, the offer was something to be carefully considered. After all, it might, in the circumstances, be better to keep some space between herself and her crush. On the other hand, that hadn't worked out so far. And maybe being friends would help her tame her feelings. Maybe he would be able to teach her as he had promised.

It was worth trying anyway. She'd be able to change her mind anytime she needed to. "Da, good idea," She agreed.

After they had said their goodbyes and the phone was hung up, she sighed with relief. Hopefully, that was a happy ending to that little problem...


	16. True Feelings

Having 'confirmed' their - Albeit slightly unstable - Friendship, Nastasya and Francis set up a meeting. It was a meeting the Russian woman was more enthusiastic about than the Frenchman was, and one that she wrongly insisted on referring to as a date, but a meeting all the same.

The overall goal was simply to meet up, as friends, and talk, with Francis keeping his promise of teaching Nastasya about love and her own misplaced feelings, which she, in turn, had to promise to try to keep under control.

Thinking this may be easier away from her rather...Eccentric family members, the Muscovite set up the meeting at her own apartment. She rarely used it, but nevertheless enjoyed knowing she had a private place to retreat to on occasion like this.

She took herself off there on the morning of their arranged meet-up and waited impatiently until France arrived. Jumping up as soon as the doorbell rang, she hurried to answer it and pulled it open. For a few minutes, she simply gazed at her beloved as she tried to remember to breathe, keep herself calm and not freak him out this time, before waving him inside.

Francis was mildly unnerved by this reaction, but in his mind, anything was better than the creepy smile she had been giving him last time they had been spending time together. So he stepped inside with a small smile of his own and a greeting of, "Bonjour, Mademoiselle."

"Privet," She answered his greeting briefly before she started to babble, too excited to see him, "How have you been since I saw you before? Anything interesting happened? What do you want to do first? Do you want a drink?" She began to hurl questions at him rapidly, overwhelmed just by _being_ with him again.

"Err..." He hesitated for a moment, startled by two things; the sudden barrage of questions and her apartment. He wasn't expecting to be interrogated and he had never visited her personal home before, only the family's house, so he was taken aback by how clinical it was. Nastasya _had_ her own home, but she had never really bothered to fully move into it, only using it when it was convenient, so most of her personal items were still at her parents' house, leaving the apartment cold and devoid of any clues about her life.

The Frenchman shrugged. He supposed that suited her stoic persona, however odd it was that she didn't appear to have _anything_ around in her house at the moment, besides basic essentials.

Turning his attention back to her questions, he replied, "I've been fine, but sadly, non, nothing more interesting than watching England burn his food..." He sniggered at the memory.

Even though she was only vaguely familiar with the Nation in question, Nastasya nodded in understanding. News like England's food travelled quickly. "He really needs to learn to cook..." She muttered.

"Oui, absolutely!" Francis wasted no time in agreeing with her, "As for what to do, we have a lot to talk about, Ma Chérie, drinks would be a nice start," He added with a smile.

He sat down on a couch as Moscow made them both some coffee. She set it down on the table and sat down beside him. There was a somewhat awkward pause before she spoke up. "This is...Difficult to talk about," She told him, blushing a little.

The Frenchman looked at her curiously, "Is it? What do you want to say that's so hard? Please, speak your mind, it won't offend me, I promise," He tried to reassure her. Maybe it would help her say whatever was on her mind. Quietly, he wondered if it would be shocking or disturbing, knowing nothing about her other than her obsessive feelings for him. But he was also interested in finding out more. Maybe it would help him understand her feelings...And therefore help her through them.

She looked thoughtful as she tried to sum up what was on her mind. Eventually, she decided to simply be honest as she spilt out her experiences with her feelings for him. "I realised what I was doing was wrong," She revealed, getting another look of surprised curiosity from him, "My mother and I talked...She told me you can't make someone love you..." She paused there, remembering how hard it had been to hear.

Again, the Frenchman was surprised. _Belarus_ hardly seemed like someone who would be pushing _that_ message. But he nodded anyway, "She's right. Of course you can't...Love is far too beautiful a thing to be faked, manipulated, or pushed on someone," He told her.

She processed this with a deadpan expression, leaving him unaware of her thoughts, then nodded. "I guess that's true...But at first, I didn't believe her. I had to do something stupid before I realised I needed to get over you. And I _tried_. It never worked." She explained the rest of her feelings then sat quietly, waiting for his response...

But Francis had picked up on the part of her sentence she had hoped would slip by unnoticed. "What did you do?" He asked her.

A pained look flashed across her face as she remembered her own idiotic behaviour and tried to think of how to explain it to her Beloved. "I...I don't know if I can tell you this..." She admitted, her pale face turning even whiter.

"You need to. I'll try to accept it, I promise. Young crushes can make you behave stupidly sometimes, I understand that but please do be honest," France pressed.

She nodded silently, taking her time to get a grip. Finally, she admitted, "I...I put something in your drink. It was supposed to make you fall in love with me..." She told him, watching his face to see how this shocking confession might affect him.

Amazingly, the Frenchman _laughed_ , "Oh, Sweetheart, is that _all?_ I told you, when you're young and you have a crush, you act stupidly sometimes! A long time ago, I had feelings for the Queen, Marie Antoinette, I technically committed treason to be around her," He revealed.

Moscow was so relieved by his amused response that she found herself laughing too. "And Mama used to chase Papa around with knives," She added.

He shivered theatrically, "Oui, in meetings, I remember...I'm so glad they worked that out between them," He noted.

The young Russian woman laughed again at his dramatics. Then, she was suddenly serious again as she switched to another subject. "So how can I get over a crush like this?" She demanded to know.

"I'm sorry, Ma Chérie...Sometimes, there's nothing you can do but wait for you to grow out of it," Francis told her as kindly as he could, hoping she would take it to heart and that it would actually be the case someday. It was hard to tell right now, though at least they been able to have a nice conversation without her grinning inanely or refusing to speak.

Nastasya sighed..."Well, I suppose I can live with it. Sometimes, I forget what it's like to live without it. And I wonder if I would want to..." She told him.

The Frenchman raised an eyebrow, taken aback again. "Isn't it painful?" He questioned her.

She shook her head, "It was at first, but it's become comfortable now. Especially when I'm around you," She tried to explain her feelings.

This time, the long pause was because of France. He took his time to process this revelation that this might be more than the intense, painful insanity of a young crush by a confused girl. She might have progressed to really being in love with him, having grown to be able to selflessly control her feelings, feel comfortable and happy around him, yet still not let him go...

He didn't know how to react to thinking about that. So for the time being, he supposed he would keep quiet. He wasn't sure, after all, and he didn't want to give her hope by using the word 'love' to explain her feelings. "Anyway, as nice as it's been to talk to you, I really need to go. I'll see you again soon, Ma Chérie," He told her with a smile, standing up.

Nastasya got up and followed him to the door. She reluctantly bade him farewell, tipped away the cold coffee they had accidentally abandoned and sat down quietly, alone with her thoughts. Ultimately, the first meeting of their attempted friendship had given them both a lot to think about...


	17. Confessions And Fun

When he arrived back at the hotel he was staying in, Francis sat on his bed with a deep sigh and tried to think about what was best to do in this ever more complicated situation. It was fairly obvious now that Nastasya had somehow fallen in love with him, or, given that they hardly knew one another, an idea of him.

It was even more obvious that they shouldn't be together. For one thing, they didn't know one another. The whole point of his presence here was that they were supposed to be getting to know one another. Of course, needing to get to know one another wasn't really a permanent barrier, stopping them forming a relationship.

But it was also far from the only reason why they shouldn't, he reminded himself. After all, he was an older Nation and she was a young City...They _were_ both adults, he admitted, and he supported the rights of any loving adults to be together, but...

There was such a gap between his experiences and hers. She was a naïve young woman who was dealing with these feelings for the first time, he had had two other loves, who he would always carry in his heart, whose tragic deaths had scarred him...Marie Antoinette and Jeanne D'arc had made him swear off love affairs with Humans, realising it would only lead him to a painful ending...

But _she_ 's not a Human...A small voice from the back of his mind whispered to him. It was then that he realised he was actually having to _try_ to convince himself _not_ to enter into a relationship with her. "Sacré Bleu! After all this we've been through together, I've developed feelings for her as well!" He gasped, so shocked that he found himself speaking out loud.

So why was he trying to talk himself out of these feelings? He asked himself. Was he afraid of Belarus and Russia? Or of being in love again after all his bad experiences? A flash of pride sparked up, of course _he_ wasn't frightened! He didn't even care about Belarus and Russia, he told himself, lying. The heart wanted whatever it wanted, surely?

That in mind, he got up and hurriedly headed back to the Russian woman's apartment to talk to her about his discoveries.

Nastasya had also been musing over her feelings and so was quite annoyed by the sudden distraction from her thoughts about her beloved. She got up anyway and reluctantly trudged to the door, pulling it open. Instantly, she lit up, "Oh, you're back!" She beamed.

"Oui, I am. I think I need to tell you something," He admitted.

She stepped aside to let him back inside and then turned to him curiously, "What is it?" She asked.

"I know I said before that this would never happen, for so many reasons, but I realised some things. Firstly, I think you really are in love with me. The way you talk about your feelings...Seem to go beyond a childish crush. Secondly, I...I think I might have feelings for you as well," He revealed. She stood speechlessly staring at him, so he continued to try to explain how things may change, "It happens sometimes, the heart is a strange thing, but I know after all the misunderstandings between us, it's a shock. So I won't pressure you to make any decision or even respond right now. But if you want to, Ma Chérie, then I propose we get to know one another better as more than friends."

Nastasya blinked, shook herself and finally remembered to close her mouth after her initial speechless gasping. Awkwardly aware that she was also turning very red, thus destroying her usual stoic façade, she managed to regain enough self-control to nod and say, "I think we should too," before her somewhat obsessive passion took her over again and she threw herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck and kissing him.

Now it was Francis' turn to be surprised, but nevertheless, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back.

Meanwhile, in the Braginsky/Braginskaya's family home, the other two young Cities had encountered a problem: Boredom. Natalya appeared to be engaged in the World's longest phone conversation to Iryna and therefore wasn't available to spoil her children, similarly, Ivan was out somewhere. Worryingly, no idea apart from Natalya knew _where,_ and both of them had been finding it very amusing.

Ilya and Inna were lounging idly on a sofa. Eventually, Ilya groaned, turned his sister and announced, "I'm bored!"

"Me too," She answered with a sigh.

"I wish Gabi was here..." He muttered.

"Well, they're not, so we'll have to find someone else to help entertain us," Inna declared. A brief look over at Natalya determined disturbing her would be unwise. She was currently looking very determined as she ranted into the phone, "Who cares about the stupid laws?! Vanya and I managed, didn't we? If you're in love, you should just get married already!" She was telling her sister.

The siblings exchanged glances. "Where's Papa?" Ilya asked, picking another target.

"No idea," Inna shrugged.

"And Tetushka is still away, da?" He double-checked. She nodded. For a brief moment, Ilya entertained the idea of running off to find Iryna, but it was a longer journey from here and he had had to witness first hand how frantic his parents had gone the last time that something like that had happened.

He tried another option, "What about 'Stasya?"

Inna perked up a bit. She knew her sister lived nearby and right now the idea of winding her up seemed somehow amusing. More amusing than hanging around here doing nothing at all anyway. "She's at home. Shall we go and surprise her?" She asked with a grin. Ilya readily agreed, so they hurried off. Although not before leaving a note on the table to make sure everyone knew where they were. Inna had at least learnt from her recent ordeal.

The two young personifications set out cheerfully, entertained by the idea of finding and severely irritating their older sister, but a new problem soon arose. "Where exactly _does_ 'Stasya live when she's not with us?" Ilya asked.

Inna only had a vague idea herself. "In the City centre," She told him.

"And where are we now?" Was the next question.

"On the edge of the City, I think," She replied.

After a few minutes of walking, her brother piped up again, "Then shouldn't we be going the other way? The woods are getting _closer_ ," He pointed out.

Safe in the knowledge that her little brother didn't understand Belarusian, Minsk cursed in her native language as they turned around and began to traipse back in the direction they had come from. They were walking for quite a while, but the surrounding area was becoming noticeably more built up as they escaped the suburbs.

Then a car roared up beside them, stopping. "You kids lost?" A voice asked from somewhere inside. Inna peered in through a blacked-out window and failed to identify what was addressing them, but replied anyway.

"Yes, we're looking for our sister's house," She revealed, glad that some help might be on the horizon.

"Where's she live?" The voice's unseen owner instantly demanded to know, leaving the Belarusian teenager trying hard to recall any details of her sister's address. The name of the apartment building swam into her brain, remembered from the details of a Christmas card exchange a while ago. She blurted it out hopefully.

"Oh, I know where _that_ is, hop in, I'll take you," The driver of the car replied. Now alarm bells were beginning to ring in Inna's head. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she instinctively gripped Ilya's hand tightly and shook her head, before starting to walk away, ignoring the abuse being hurled from behind her.

Then another, calmer voice addressed her, "Good call. By the way, you need the next street on the left. Then it's the third building along on this side," She turned and thanked the helpful stranger, glad to have finally found their intended destination.

After that, everything seemed to return to normal and they soon arrived at Nastasya's building. The door was open and she stepped inside, dragging her brother with her. It's either number three or four, she thought to herself. Walking over to apartment number three's front door, she pushed it gently, experimenting. The door swung open easily, revealing that they had, at last, found their older sister.

Nastasya and Francis had had too much on their minds to bother getting out of the hallway before they started to kiss passionately. Inna pulled a disgusted face, making fake gagging noises as she went to put her hands over Ilya's eyes. The boy pushed her away and sniggered, "Wow...Well, I think this counts as a surprise, right, Sestra?!" He called out smugly to his eldest sibling.

Suddenly disturbed from her blissful first kiss by the sound of her brother's voice, Nastasya jumped and pulled away from Francis, turning red when she saw her siblings standing the doorway staring. "Uh...What the heck are you two doing here?!" She managed to gasp.

As she tore herself off him hastily, the Frenchman was also alerted to their presence but tried to keep calm, simply waving at them in greeting.

"We just came to see you," Inna replied innocently as she waved back at Francis like she hadn't just walked in on him and her sister enjoying an intimate moment. "Is now a bad time?" She asked, smiling serenely.

Besides the fact today has been an emotional rollercoaster for me, you mean? Nastasya felt like saying. She kept that to herself though and trying to cool down and collect herself. Looking over at Francis helped her. "Nyet, not at all, come in," She replied, beckoning her siblings inside. Ilya cheerfully charged into her pristine apartment, which he had never had the privilege of visiting because it was his sister's way of keeping her quiet personal life and chaotic family apart, determined to thoroughly explore. And possibly destroy.

Inna followed him more calmly, glancing between her sister and her unexpected 'guest' as she did so. Nastasya leant over and whispered, "Don't you dare tell Mama and Papa!" In her ear as she walked past, before giving Francis an apologetic look.

He laughed, "Families are fun, aren't they?" Wondering what it was going to be like having to spend more time around her family. Let alone introducing her to his...

"Fun is one word," Nastasya sighed. 'Fun' indeed...


	18. A Day Full Of Drama

Technically, this was Nastasya and Francis's first date. And they were curled up on a couch, watching something on the T.V. It would have been a nice date, had it not been for the presence of Nastasya's little siblings, sitting on another couch on the other side of the room, whispering and giggling together.

The Muscovite would occasionally steal glares at them. Their unexpected arrival had ruined what she considered to be the best day of her life so far. Meanwhile, Francis had been great about it, suggesting a compromise between the new couple spending time together and entertaining the 'bored' youngsters by putting the T.V on for a while.

However irritated Nastasya was, the day had quietened down now and they were simply sitting around, relaxing. For once, things seemed relatively peaceful for all three of the Cities...

For their parents, not so much. Natalya was still ranting at her sister down the phone. She was probably more zealous about her sister's love life than she was. Worried that Iryna was upset to be missing out on the potential joys of married life with Emma, the Belarusian woman was determined to convince Iryna that they would be able to get married anyway.

"I do wish we could get married," The Ukrainian woman had been telling her younger sister, wanting to get this off her chest so much that she had forgotten to think. She had intended this to be a meaningless grumble to make herself feel better, but she had put Natalya's obsession with marriage and desire to make her siblings happy out of her mind.

"Vanya and I got married, didn't we? And _technically,_ that's not legal where we live because we're siblings. But we're Nations and we're in love, so we made sure we would be able to get married, married, married!" Natalya was obviously getting carried away as she countered Iryna's reasons why she and her girlfriend weren't able to get married.

Ukraine paused thoughtfully. Well, Natalya was rather over-enthusiastic, but she wasn't _wrong._ Nations had a little bit more sway legally than regular people and besides, their marriage would be legal in Belgium...It would be nice to officially tie the knot with Emma after twenty years together. "Well, I suppose that's true, Sestra. Thanks for the help. I'll certainly think about it," She replied.

"Good," Natalya responded, "In the mind time, you better take care and be well," She told her firmly.

"I will. And you do too, Dear. Bye!" Iryna bid her Little Sister farewell and hung up with a lot on her mind...

Meanwhile, Ivan was also busy involved in his own little drama. It had started with his decision to go out and celebrate his youngest daughter's attempts to make up with him. Things hadn't been perfect, but after years of unexplained hostility from her, anything better was a huge relief. So he had started drinking.

By this point, the Russian man was slightly intoxicated, overly jolly and had somehow, for a reason even he wasn't entirely clear about, acquired a tank. He had driven said tank all the way from Moscow to Latvia's house in Riga. Just because it had seemed like a funny idea while he was mildly intoxicated.

Now he was sitting on in the tank on the lawn, singing his national anthem loudly. Raivis was trying to ignore him. It wasn't working. Shutting the windows and drawing the curtains wasn't changing the fact there was a slightly drunk and overly cheerful Russian man in his garden.

Ivan was also starting to get slightly offended by the complete lack of attention and stopped singing in order to whine. "Latviaaa...Why won't you come and party with me?!" He shouted. After there was no reply, he decided to resort to bribery, "I have Vodka! Free Vodka!"

A window opened slowly. Raivis peered out to see what was going on now and if there was any chance of getting a free drink _without_ going anywhere near the drunken Russian man. There didn't appear to be. The window was hastily shut again.

Russia swore rather dejectedly. It appeared as though no wanted to share his joy. Then an idea occurred to him. "I have fireworks too! Really amazing ones, look!" He called out. This statement was followed up by a loud _bang!_ and a huge explosion as a shell hit the house. "Oops..." Ivan muttered, somewhat soberer and finally able to see that his drunken plans weren't actually as good ideas as they had seemed under the influence Vodka.

He jumped out of his tank and went over to inspect the rubble. Upon finding Latvia, he prodded him with his toe, "Are you dead?" He questioned him.

The potential 'corpse' sat up, grumbling, "No...And that wasn't a firework!" He protested, "Why did you have to do that?"

"Vodka. Vodka explains everything, da?" Ivan decided not to go into the full story right now. "Anyway, you're fine, you don't need to complain," He shrugged the whole incident off.

"I don't have a house anymore!" Raivis protested, near to tears.

Ivan surveyed the rubble where the house was, opened his mouth to claim it 'wasn't that bad' and was forced to privately admit that it was. The remains of the house were lying in a heap on the ground, smouldering. "Uhh...Never mind!" He tried to stay positive, still grinning.

" _Never mind?_ What am I going to _do?"_ The Latvian was still questioning him despairingly.

"Well, you can come and stay with me for a bit until it gets fixed, da?" Ivan offered, attempting to be friendly.

It didn't really work, at least not from Latvia's point of view. The other Nation was already terrifying to him, given their history together, and today had been emotional, stressful and quite traumatic so far. The _last_ thing he wanted was 'help' from Russia. In fact, the idea frightened him to the point of fainting, although, after everything that had already happened, that probably didn't take a lot.

Ivan looked down at him lying on the ground and shrugged, mildly surprised as to how and why he had got down there. Then, automatically assuming his 'friend' had, or at least would have if he was awake, accepted his offer, picked him up and carried him off.

Several hundred miles away and, thankfully for her, oblivious to her Little Brother's alcohol-fuelled shenanigans, Iryna was preparing to do something hugely important to her. Spurred on by her sister's enthusiastic words of encouragement, she had arranged a special, surprise date with Emma that evening, and had found time during the day to steal away and buy her an engagement ring.

It wasn't anything fancy, she didn't have much money at the moment, but she knew the golden band would be beautiful on Emma's hand and so long as she got the opportunity to express just how much she loved her, she didn't care about anything else.

She slipped her hand into her pocket and touched the ring box. Well. nearly nothing else...So long as the Belgian woman felt the same way. She _ought_ to, surely, having been with her for twenty years. But now, sitting on the couch waiting for Emma to be ready, Iryna was starting to feel nervous, butterflies dancing in her stomach.

"Babe! Are you ready to go?" Her lover's cheerful voice cut through her thoughts and she jumped up, nodding and taking Belgium's hand as they set off. It was quite a long, but pleasant walk down to the beach where they both loved to spend time. And where the Ukrainian woman intended to ask that all-important question.

Emma chattered away most of the time, but her girlfriend was curiously quiet, seeming to be focused on something beyond their date. This was strange, given how little time they were usually able to spend together, and the Belgian woman was beginning to worry. "Are you alright? You don't seem yourself tonight," She said as they stepped onto the warm sand.

Iryna jolted slightly. It was time. Her heart was beating fast as that dawned on her. She had spent ages thinking this moment would never come and now, there was nothing in her way but the question itself. "I...I'm fine. It's just, there's something I need to talk to you about," She began, trying to reassure her partner and get a hold of her own nerves at the same time.

Belgium wasn't really reassured, just intrigued and a little bit nervous herself. What could her partner want to talk to her about that was so serious? It was obviously making Ukraine nervous as well, so it had to be important. Well, there was only one way for her to find out..."What is it?" She asked.

The Ukrainian woman took a deep breath and began to explain, "I've been thinking recently that we've been together for so long and that, well, I love you a lot. I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you...So please," She sank down onto one knee, still clutching the hand of a stunned Emma, and pulled the ring box from her pocket, "Will you marry me?"

"Oh, _Oh..._ " Emma gasped as soon as it dawned on her as to what was happening, looking down as Iryna flicked open the box and held it up to her. She gazed into her girlfriend's eyes and saw love, sincere love. The other woman was almost in tears just asking her this. Her heart pounded in her chest and she knew what she needed to say, "Oui! Ja!" She answered eagerly, barely leaving the Ukrainian time to slip the ring onto her finger and stand up before she hurled herself into her arms, clinging to her and kissing her cheeks hundreds of times as Iryna sobbed with joy, holding her.

A few hours later, when the newly engaged couple had both calmed down a little bit, Iryna phoned Natalya to tell her the good news. Meanwhile, Nastasya had finished with both the programme on the T.V and her younger siblings, thus resorting to sending the two Cities home. And Ivan finally arrived home, casually parking his tank in the drive.

By this point, he was in quite a bad mood. He had been quite cheerful earlier, but now things had gone wrong with his tank party. And once Latvia had woken up, he had had to listen to quite a few complaints before it got annoying and he had decided to smile at him until he got nervous and shut up.

And now he had arrived home at the same moment as all Hell broke loose. Inna and Ilya ran into the house ahead of him, and when he got inside, Natalya had run into them in her haste to find someone else to pass on Iryna's good news too. "What were you to doing at Nastasya's house?" She began to question her little ones, momentarily allowing their return to distract her.

"Watching something with her and her boyfriend," Inna answered with a shrug.

 _"What_ boyfriend?!" Ivan growled as he entered, beginning to wish he had never gone out, the way everything had gone since then. Natalya didn't look pleased either but opted to temporarily put that out of her mind, in favour of sharing Iryna's news.

"We will find that out later, Brother Dear," She decided, "I have som-" The Belarusian woman spotted the unexpected Latvian guest hiding behind her husband and instinctively reacted to the idea of an intruder in her family's home, by yanking out a knife and pointing it at him. "What are _you_ doing here?!" She demanded to know.

"Mr Russia blew my house up..." Latvia complained.

Belarus considered this carefully, "Hm...You probably deserved it," She concluded. "Anyway, Big Brother, I have good news!"

Ivan cheered up a little bit, hoping this was something genuinely good after a day of drunkenness and drama. "What's that then, Bela?" He asked her.

"Big Sister is getting married! Isn't that lovely? I said I would help her plan the wedding since I planned ours and I still have the plans somewhere," Natalya told him excitedly. She always got a little...overly excited about weddings, Ivan remembered. But it was still good news, anyway. It would make Iryna happy to be finally married to her long term girlfriend.

"Da, that's definitely lovely," He nodded in agreement, "And I'm sure you'll have...Fun planning things," He added, raising an eyebrow at the idea. Ah, well, maybe it would keep Natalya out of any other form of trouble for a little while...

"I'm already working on it, Darling," She answered with a smile, the dangerous light in her eyes suggesting she had a great deal of ideas on that front. The Russian man simply sighed in response.

It had been one of _those_ days, full of dramas. Still, in this family, that wasn't really a surprise, at least some of them were the positive kind of drama.


	19. A Whole Lot Of Chaos

After the handful of incidents that had filled the day, no one felt like doing anything serious anymore. But in the morning, things began anew. Natalya, still enthusiastic about her elder sister's upcoming marriage, grabbed her phone, the old notebooks filled with her own wedding plans from years ago, and some new books and set out to start planning straight away.

This meant that Iryna and Emma didn't get any peace and quiet in which to celebrate their engagement, as they were being bombarded by questions and ideas over the phone. After the fifth interruption of this kind, The Ukrainian woman gave up on getting any rest and sat by her phone, waiting for her sister's latest call.

Meanwhile, Ivan couldn't forget about what he had heard from Inna yesterday about Nastasya's 'boyfriend' and felt a need to find out more. If possible, everything. So he decided to pay his oldest daughter an unannounced visit to her apartment, hoping she would be in the mood to talk or if not, that her unknown boyfriend would be with her.

A part of him was slightly relieved by this news, it might mean that she was over her weird obsession with his French colleague. On the other hand, he was still concerned with protecting her from all the issues that seemed guaranteed to come with relationships. He went over to her apartment as fast as possible and knocked on the door.

The knock woke Nastasya up, making her jump. She stared at her bedroom ceiling for a moment in shock and bewilderment as she tried to process what was going on around her. Normally an early riser, she had slept for a lot longer than she had expected, she realised as she glanced at the clock. But then last night, she had been up longer, enjoying her time with Francis and not wanting him to leave. When he had gone, she had finally gone to bed...

And now it was the morning, she reminded herself, and someone had banged on her door. She sighed, rolling out of her bed and rubbing her eyes, before she grabbed her dressing gown, tugging it on as she walked to the door.

Yanking it open, she was greeted by the sight of her father. He squinted at her carefully, looking quite concerned. And really, this was no surprise. Her hair was still sticking out all over the place, the dressing gown she had hastily pulled on was inside out and, thanks to a lack of her usual early morning coffee, she looked as though she had all the energy of a zombie.

"Are you okay, Petal?" Ivan asked, frowning in concern, partly because she looked awful and partly because he had plenty of overly imaginative ideas running around his head as to why she might be tired and badly dressed.

"I just woke up," Nastasya explained. Up until now, she had been too sleepy to think about her appearance, but after his reaction to seeing her, she smoothed her hair down as well as she could with one hand. "I'll be fine in a minute," She assured him.

The Russian man looked sceptical, but let it slide for the time being. "That's okay, Sweetheart. Now, would you mind if I come in? I think we ought to talk, da?" He answered her.

"Okay," She shrugged, stepping aside to let him in. She had no idea what he wanted to talk about, but they were close enough for a random visit to talk wouldn't be a surprise to her, so she wasn't overly bothered. Ivan walked inside and Nastasya shut the door, trailing after him.

He looked at her again as he sat down in the sitting room and sighed, "You might want to get dressed and get yourself some coffee first, da?" He suggested, still aware that she was far from awake.

Taking his advice, she disappeared into her room and returned a few minutes later, minus the inside out dressing gown and plus her regular clothes. A couple more minutes and some coffee later, she sat down beside him. "So, what did you want to talk about?" She asked as she sipped her drink, starting to feel a bit more awake.

"Your boyfriend," Russia answered, opting to get straight to the point and see how much information he was going to get from her. Watching her face, he answered her next question before she had the opportunity to answer it, "Inna told me you had one. Unfortunately, she didn't tell me anything else. So I need to know, da?"

Nastasya didn't respond immediately, unsure how much information to share. She knew both of her parents were immensely protective of her and they had also both tried to talk her out of her original crush on Francis. On the other hand, her family were very dear to her. And they would definitely have to know at some point anyway.

"Francis and I talked some things out," She admitted, "And one thing led to another..." She didn't really need to finish that sentence, it was now pretty obvious what was going on.

Well, at least I'm getting somewhere, Ivan thought, glad that she was willing to tell him the truth fairly swiftly and simply. He still wasn't sure he was completely happy about the idea of Nastasya having a relationship, or how he felt about that relationship being with France. But he had to admit that she was an adult now and would have to be allowed to make her own choices there, whatever happened.

He'd just be ready in case something _did_ happen and he didn't like it. "Da, I understand, Sweetheart, don't worry. And that's all fine. I just wanted to know the truth," He told her with a smile, putting his doubts aside for a little while to make his daughter happy. Nastasya was quite relieved to get that sort of reaction from her often overly protective father and hugged him happily.

But while Ivan had got his answers and made his eldest daughter happy, his absence and Natalya preoccupation with planning Iryna's wedding for her meant that there was no one at home to supervise Ilya, who thrived off creating pure chaos.

Well, technically, both Latvia and Minsk were in the house as well. But Inna didn't seem to care what her younger brother got up and in fact, she was quite often one of his primary accomplices, if she was feeling bored or troublesome for some reason. As for Raivis, he was trying his best to avoid Russia's slightly insane family by hiding his room.

So Saint Petersburg was free to do whatever he wanted. Especially as Inna was also feeling quite bored now that the big, busy house was weirdly empty and quiet. All it took for the two young Cities to decide now was the perfect moment to cause some trouble was a glance at one another. Ilya grinned, leading Inna to instantly ask, "What's the plan this time then?"

The boy shrugged, "Depends. What to do you think will cause the most trouble?" He asked. A few different plans were concocted and carefully considered. Everything from another water fight, to strategically placing banana peels around the house for their unsuspecting fellow residents to fall on, to frightening people if they were able to, by dressing up in old Halloween costumes.

In the end, to make for the most trouble possible, they opted to combine all their ideas into one. Ilya disappeared into his room, pulled every single item of clothing out of his wardrobe and re-emerged holding an old mummy outfit he had had for Halloween a few years ago and grinning hugely. Meanwhile, Inna had been tucking into some fruit snacks and now had a bowl of peelings to show for it.

Additionally, they hunted through the house and the shed until they found all the water pistols, water balloons and other troublemaking water-related items that they could lay their hands on.

"Ready?" Inna asked her younger brother as she loaded one of the guns.

"READY!" Ilya cheered, seizing a water balloon in each hand.

The two mischief-making Cities charged up the stairs, armed and incredibly amused, to find a victim. From the top of the stairs, it was easy to hear Natalya's voice drifting out of the bedroom she and Ivan shared as she interrogated her sister.

"What kind of dress are you planning to wear? What about Emma? What flowers do you want? Who's going to be the bridesmaids?" She was asking all in one breath, rushing to get all the details of her sister's future wedding.

Again, all it took to make that decision was a grin. However, though they found the idea of spraying their mother with water amusing, both of them knew of her formidable temper, so they approached the door with caution. Eventually, Inna daringly took a step forward and poked the business end of her water pistol around the door.

"Pull the trigger, go on, do it!" Her brother urged her on in a whisper. Giggling quietly, the Belarusian girl held down the trigger and moved the gun around, blindly spraying the room.

"Wh-AHHHHHH!" Was the noise that informed the two conspiring children of their successful attack on their unsuspecting mother. Iryna's concerned tones crackled out of the dropped phone as it lay abandoned on the bed, and the soaking wet Belarusian woman jumped up in a rage.

Outside, her attackers fled, but not before setting up phase two of their plan: a trap. A series of banana peels were chucked onto the ground as they retreated, lining the path to Inna's room, where they hid out, Minsk keeping all the weapons on her and standing guard behind the door while Ilya got changed into his mummy outfit.

Natalya prowled down the corridor, more than a little irritated by the sudden watery interruption to her planning, but also privately aware of the most likely source of the prank, and therefore a little less annoyed than she might have been. She didn't get too cross with her Beloved offspring and she certainly never stayed very angry with them for long.

That wouldn't stop her from getting them though. A prankster at heart herself, she found the idea of giving them a little payback amusing. So she had sneakily dodged their traps and had a plan in mind. When she reached the end of the trail of fruit skins, she tapped on Minsk's bedroom door then ducked back against the wall.

Inna's first response to a knock at the door was to raise her gun, but Ilya protested. "Nyet, don't shoot yet, Sestra! I want to scare Mama!" He declared, giggling at the very idea of frightening his mother with the costume he was wearing. Inna shrugged, not overly bothered either way and moved aside to let him run out into the corridor, roaring and yelling.

Now, Belarus wasn't easily scared. She had lived through too much chaos and too many wars to be frightened of a child in a too small, cheaply made Halloween costume which she herself had bought in the first place.

That said, she adored her son and right now, when he was trying his best to terrify her, he was simply too cute for her _not_ to play along. So she began to run, screaming back down the corridor. Hearing her mother yelling, Inna decided something fun must be going on and that she didn't want to miss out. Running outside as well, she joined the chase.

The three family members running shrieking along the corridor was enough to do wake the dead and therefore, eventually attracted Latvia's attention. He wondered briefly if it was worth going out of his room to see if the rest of the house was still there and make sure no one was getting murdered, then decided that if he didn't and anything was happening out there, _he_ would probably be the one getting murdered instead when Ivan got home.

It just so happened that he chose a terrible time to open the door. Flinging it open as Natalya and Ilya crashed by caused Inna to slam into it and nearly fall onto the floor. Worried, he moved to catch her and ended up slipping down on a banana skin, landing on top of her.

Hearing a bang behind her, Belarus skidded to a halt, her son slamming into her back sharply. As spoilt children everywhere tend to, he instantly responded to this inconvenience by bursting into tears and starting to wail.

While all Hell had been breaking loose in his house, Ivan, satisfied that his darling daughter wasn't lying to him, was happy and that he didn't need to fear for her safety, had been driving home and for the second day in a row, chose the perfect time to walk into the house. Finding no one downstairs but hearing a lot of yelling from the second storey, he headed upstairs, only to find his son sobbing in Natalya's arms while it appeared to him that Raivis and Inna were lying on the ground in an embrace.

Standing at the top of the stairs making a noise like a volcano about to erupt, the Russian man came to the conclusion that this just wasn't his week. Thankfully for him, upon realising her Beloved husband was home, Natalya sprang into action. She finished comforting her son, a task made easy by simply promising him chocolate, since he wasn't really hurt or that upset. Then she turned to the others and yelled, "Get off her or I'll cut you! And Inna, Dear, get up and put the water guns away...I think we've had enough of this game now," At them.

After a _lot_ of tidying up and another, explanatory phone call to Iryna, the situation seemed more or less solved. Natalya explained everything that had happened to Ivan and he, in turn, revealed the nature of Nastasya's relationship to her. So they learnt a lot that day. At the expense of a whole lot of chaos.


	20. Bridesmaids, Swordfights And Peace

After two days of pure chaos, things seemed to get a bit calmer. Ilya was out of over the top prank ideas and quite fed up in any case, so everyone else got some peace from his antics.

His middle sister and primary accomplice was also too busy to encourage him in the direction more trouble making. In the name of bonding with her father, Inna had agreed to spend some time with Ivan and was at the moment occupied with helping him prepare for an upcoming business trip.

Thankfully for Natalya, this, at last, gave her the desired peace and quiet with which to work on Ukraine's wedding plans for her. She had taken the time to get a list from her sister of all the couple's female friends and relatives who were going to be the bridesmaids. So far this included herself, Nastasya, Inna, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Czech. She was her sister's Matron of Honour and Hungary was Belgium's, with her daughters being Ukraine's bridesmaids and the other girls as Emma's.

That much information had been divulged by the Ukrainian woman over the phone, but to organise all six women properly, Belarus had opted to arrange a meeting. And while Ilya appeared to be reasonably well-behaved, she had, rather naively, thought it would be safe to have this meeting at her family home.

Nastasya had arrived first, not having that far to travel from her apartment and, while they waited for the other guests, was being subject to a rather embarrassing interrogation about her new relationship by her mother. "So," Natalya began, staring over a table strewn with cups of tea and a formidable pile of 'planning books', "Exactly how far have this thing with France gone?"

Her daughter somehow managed to maintain her expressionless face as she sighed, "Mama, that's private!" She answered firmly.

"Nyet, it is not. I have a right to know where he is putting his nasty frog hands," Belarus growled, before seeing her daughter's stoic face flicker and calming down slightly to avoid upsetting her dear child, "Sweetheart, I will support any relationship that makes you happy. But you are my daughter and I must also protect you from any bad intentions. Now, do not let him...Do anything until you two are safely married, understand?" She tried to explain.

Nastasya sighed again, "Da, da, I understand, Mama..." She answered, realising this wasn't a battle she was going to win, "It's still far too early to have the marriage discussion though," She pointed out.

It may well have been a good job that Belarus's attempt to reply to that was cut off by the doorbell ringing. The older Slavic woman got up and went to answer. On the doorstep was Hungary, with Czech, who was terrified of the Belarusian, hiding behind her and using her as a human shield of sorts. The Hungarian was also holding hands with her offspring, who appeared rather excited about something.

"Privet," Natalya greeted her guests, making Czech flinch, before looking down at Gabi, "Why is the infant here?" She questioned Elizaveta.

"Hello!" Hungary replied politely, "Sorry about Gabi, they were desperate to come and see your son, apparently."

"Only to annoy him," The child interjected hastily.

Belarus shrugged, "Fine, it might keep them both out of trouble," She wrongly assumed. In fact, with both of the children together, trouble was _more_ likely. But it was too late to reconsider now, as Gabi instantly decided they were off to find their frenemy and tore away from their mother's hand, dodging past Natalya and into the house.

The hostess raised an eyebrow, curious and slightly concerned about what would happen when the other child was located, but turned her attention back to their plans and beckoning them inside. Hungary headed in, passing Russia in the corridor and pausing to glare. After a few long, awkward minutes, the other woman followed her cautiously. Natalya resisted the urge to scold Elizaveta about being nice to her Big Brother or shout 'Boo' at the Czech woman and see if she fainted or not. She had to stay focused, for Big Sister's sake.

"Right, we are just waiting for Liechtenstein to get here," She told them as she followed them back to the table.

"Ugh...Is this just a gathering of people I'm on bad terms with?" Czechia found the courage to protest.

Elizaveta pouted, "I don't think _we're_ on very bad terms," She protested.

The other woman thought about this and conceded, "I suppose not. Disregarding the spa thing for now..."

Hungary opened her mouth to retort to that and was cut off by Belarus, who really didn't have the patience to deal with these pointless rivalries right now. "Does that matter? We're simply here to make Irunya and Emma happy," She argued.

"F-Fair enough..." Czech stammered. Then the doorbell chimed again and Natalya jumped up to get it. When she opened it, Lilly was standing on the doorstep, smiling at her.

"Hallo!" She greeted her, receiving a similar greeting in Russian from the Belarusian woman as she was urged inside to join the others. As they wandered down the hallway, Natalya stuck her head around the door to Ivan's office and shouted, "Inna! We need you!"

Inna sighed and glanced pleadingly at Ivan. Even if their relationship wasn't the best and was only slowly being repaired, she was currently pretty deep into a tomboy phase, and would rather stay with her father than have anything to do with being a bridesmaid. She had a nasty suspicion that she was going to have to wear a _dress._

Ivan shook his head sadly, "Sorry Petal, but I'm not getting involved in this. Word of advice; Never argue with your Mama, especially not about weddings," He told her.

"Fine," The young Belarusian woman sighed, dropping the pile of papers she had been sorting out for him, out of mild pettiness, into a messy heap and trudging off. She made her way into the other room and took the spare seat between her sister and Liechtenstein.

Natalya looked around and nodded, satisfied that everyone was there, "Right, time to start," She declared, flipping open one of her notebooks. Inna looked at it with dread as her mother started to pull out dress reference photos Iryna had sent her from it.

While the women were having their meeting, Gabi had thoroughly explored the house, taking the opportunity to look at everything and touched everything they deemed interesting enough to fiddle with, leaving mucky handprints on plenty of things. Now, they decided it was time to _actually_ look for Ilya. It wasn't that hard to track him down, the Russian boy had a certain narcissistic streak and had painted his own flag on his bedroom door.

The German child banged hard on this door and it was yanked open. For a few moments, Ilya simply stared. Then he demanded to know, "What are _you_ doing here?" In mildly irritated tones, contrasted by his huge grin.

Gabi grinned too, "Invading," They joked. Seeing Ilya's glare, they decided to add, "Just kidding! Our mothers want to talk about some rubbish together so I figured I'd come and bother you while they do," They finally explained.

"That's a more acceptable answer," The Russian boy concluded, "You're allowed in," He added, stepping aside to let the other enter his room, so far the only room in the house whose treasures remained unmolested by Gabi's unwashed fingers. That was a short-lived privilege as a, thankfully plastic, sword was instantly seized.

"Awesome, we can play warriors!" Gabi announced, brandishing the sword.

Ilya snorted, " _Play?_ We can _be_ warriors, watch this!" He argued back, grabbing another fake sword smugly. Now he had another accomplice, he could cause yet another fake war easily. And he knew just where they could find a whole _room_ full of unsuspecting victims.

Downstairs, the 'unsuspecting victims' were deep into conversation. Well, more like deep into an argument between mother and daughter. Most of the bridesmaids had agreed to the Ukrainian brides' taste in dresses, in Czech's case to avoid being stabbed by Belarus, for Hungary and Liechtenstein, it was to make their friends happy and Nastasya agreed for her Aunt's sake. But Inna was still reluctant.

"I'll look ridiculous!" She insisted, completely ignoring Ivan's advice as she glowered at a photo of something pink and frilly.

"Deal with it. It is for Iryna's sake," Natalya retorted, giving her younger daughter a hard glare as she tried to make sure her sister got a dream wedding, no matter what they had to endure for her sake.

At this point, Lilly decided to intervene as a neutral party. She hated conflict, especially with it threatening to mess up her friend's wedding plans and ruin a family's relationship. "Well, we can wear the dresses and I can make you a pantsuit version if you like? I like sewing things like this, and it'll make you more comfortable, but Uku would still be happy," She suggested a compromise.

Inna looked from her mother to the peacemaker and saw that this was likely the best offer she was going to get. It was, at least, a way out of having to wear a ruffled skirted dress...She smiled at her saviour and newfound friend, "Thank you!" She told her with emphatic gratitude.

"That would be acceptable," Belarus nodded.

Lilly beamed, glad that the crisis was so easily averted. Then two lunatics waving swords burst into the room. Czech, still on edge at being the presence of Natalya, fainted. Lilly looked incredibly concerned. Hungary rolled her eyes and snatched her offspring's weapon, batting at them playfully with it as she scolded, "Don't do that! You're upsetting people!"

Nastasya, Inna and Natalya, all more than used to Ilya's behaviour, simply sighed and let the Hungarian woman chase both children off with the confiscated plastic sword. They had already finished their business for the day anyway.

Hungary returned a few minutes later, dragging her pouting child by the hand and concluded that it was time for her to leave. She looked down at the unconscious Czech, with whom she had shared a ride simply because the woman didn't want to face Belarus alone, sighed and picked her up with one arm, draping her over her shoulder. "Bye," She said simply to the others as she wandered towards the door.

"Um..." Liechtenstein watched, mildly amazed, as her friend walked off, before glancing at the clock, "I should go too. It was nice to meet you all," She said as she got up, waving goodbye to the three Slavic women as she headed out.

Natalya grinned and shut her book with a snap, "Another part of the planning sorted. And it wasn't disastrous. Despite some people's best efforts," She concluded, pausing to glower at her two younger children as Ilya slunk back into the room, keeping a watchful eye out for Hungary.

Despite some fights, the day was relatively peaceful for the family...


	21. The Love Lives Of Minsk And Moscow

The next day, Ivan received a phone call prior to his business trip. He was planning to visit Switzerland, so the Swiss man called him to discuss the planned meeting. And to extend an invitation. "Will you be bringing Minsk?" He asked, towards the end of the call after they had planned out the business.

This puzzled the Russian man, "Nyet, I wasn't planning to. Why?" He asked, unaware that Vash was even particularly familiar with his Belarusian daughter.

"Lilly asked me to invite her. She's having a party with some...Friends of hers. I can't say I approve, but it's what she wants for her birthday," The Swiss man explained.

"Ah..." The penny dropped, as he remembered Lilly visiting the day before and meeting Inna then. So Ivan considered the invitation. It would be nice to travel with his daughter, allowing them another bonding opportunity after years of her spending as little time with him as she possibly could. His protective streak wasn't sure about the idea of a 'party' though. The last party he had been to had been America's Christmas party when every Nation old enough to drink and some who weren't had been absolutely wasted. He didn't like the idea of his daughter being that sort of environment. "What kind of party is this again?" He asked suspiciously.

"Just a kid's birthday party," Vash shrugged, "We'll be nearby anyway, if anything bad happens or if they need our help at any point," He added, his equally protective mind following the Russian man's concerned thinking.

Ivan relaxed. That sounded harmless enough and Inna might enjoy it, "Da, in that case, okay, I'll bring her with me! See you then!" He answered cheerfully, accepting the invitation on Minsk's behalf. When he had hung up, he sought her out to break the good news to her.

"Inna, Inna, Sweetheart..." He called out as he approached her room, hesitating outside, just in case she was still in the habit of flinging knives at anyone who dared to enter without permission.

A blonde head popped around the door. "Yes?" His middle daughter demanded to know curiously.

"Do you want to go to a party with Liechtenstein?" He asked her.

Inna's lilac eyes lit up. So far in her life, what with overprotective parents and few friends outside her own family, parties had been few and far between. Now that she had befriended Lilly, the opportunity to go and have fun with the other girl was exciting. "Yes please!" She nodded enthusiastically. Then a catch occurred to her, one that at her age would be horrible and embarrassing but typical of her always hovering parents. "...You're not going to be there as well, are you?" She asked nervously.

Ivan looked offended, pouting as a brief flash of Inna's old angry personality appeared. "Nyet, I'll be busy with my meeting, da? But I won't be far away if you need me," He answered.

"Alright," Inna nodded as she relaxed. So long as she wasn't going to be overly embarrassed by her protective father, she didn't mind him being somewhere nearby, just in case she needed or wanted him, which, she had to admit, wasn't that likely.

That sorted, Ivan left her to do some emergency packing for the trip, since they were due to leave in the morning and went to see if he could get an extra ticket for the plane and permission from his wife to take their daughter with him. The ticket would be necessary and it wasn't a good idea to send Natalya into overprotective panic mode by making Minsk disappear. Her mood was already going to be bad enough when he was away from her.

"Nata!" He yelled, instantly summoning his wife, who ran to him excitedly and threw her arms around him passionately, already even more overly affectionate than normal, 'to make up for them having to be cruelly severed."

"Da? What is it, my treasure?" She questioned him eagerly as she ran her fingers through his hair, gazing intently at him. "Or do you just miss me already? I miss you so much..." She began to complain, and the Russian man sensed that he had to interrupt before she started to rant and rave about him while she clung on, arguing that he shouldn't leave. As she did whenever he had to go anywhere without her.

"Da, I do miss you, Bela, Sweetheart, but I need to ask you something, da?" He pacified her hurriedly before changing the subject.

"Well?" The Belarusian demanded, still embracing her Beloved Big Brother tightly.

"Are you okay with me taking Inna with me tomorrow? She is going to a party," He explained.

The woman scowled, "I don't want her there on her own. If you are busy with your meeting, who will look after her?" She argued with him. Natalya was often even more protective of her offspring than her husband, who wasn't exactly lax in his desire to keep his children safe from all harm, real and imagined.

Ivan sighed. He understood Belarus's worries, but he had already told both Inna and Vash that she would be able to go. He didn't want to disappoint anyone now. So he needed to convince his wife. "Well, I won't be far away. And she'll be with her friend, da?" He tried.

Natalya's frown remained, letting him know she wasn't reassured in the slightest. "I want someone we know well with her," She demanded. It was clear from both her expression and her tone that 'No' wasn't an acceptable answer.

The Russian man considered this carefully for some time and thought up a compromise. "Well, I'll make Latvia come with us and tell him if he doesn't look after her, something bad will happen, da?" He suggested, surprisingly cheerful for someone encouraging coercion as a solution.

Fortunately for him, he was talking to Belarus, who had her own unique moral code that didn't think of that as a bad thing if it was done to protect those she loved. And it looked like being the best solution she was going to be offered, "Alright," She nodded.

With that agreed, Ivan went to get all the extra tickets needed and make sure everything was packed.

Meanwhile, Nastasya had once again escaped the chaos of her family home to be with her boyfriend. It was the second opportunity for quality time the couple had had since beginning their relationship, and Francis was trying to make sure it was as enjoyable as possible. He had arrived early in the evening at his girlfriend's apartment with a bottle of wine.

He kissed her on the cheek as she opened the door and she instantly blushed, never able to keep up her stoicism around him. "Privet, Moya Lyubov," She greeted him with a small smile, wrapping her arms around him.

"Bonjour, Ma Chérie, do we have the pleasure of the place to ourselves this evening? Not that I dislike the company of your siblings, but...I'd rather spend the time with you, alone," He smiled at her in return.

"Don't worry, they're at home," Nastasya assured him, also preferring the time alone with him. She eyed his gift curiously. "I see you have plans," She said.

"Oui, our last date was fun, but I thought tonight, a more romantic evening would be best," He told her, an amorous sparkle in his eye. The Frenchman felt younger now, having been lonely in love for years, he was finally in a new relationship and it had refreshed him. He barely knew her, but he wanted more and more time with her, more of this feeling...

The Russian girl smiled slightly again. She had never felt this way before and of course, relished any time with her boyfriend. Just because her infatuation had matured into love, it didn't mean she was any less obsessed with him. "You better come in then," She told him, backing up to let him slip inside.

"I better?" Francis raised an eyebrow, teasing her a little bit. They were still in the process of getting to know one another and, seeing how her serious persona would slide in his presence, one of the things he wanted to find out was what he could get away with, "You want to be careful, telling me what to do," He warned her.

For a moment, Nastasya froze up, surprised by his attitude. Then she saw his smirk and realised he was teasing her. With anyone else, she would be annoyed. Instead, she decided to push back. "Or what?" She demanded to know.

"Or this will happen..." The Frenchman responded as his grin grew, dumping the bottle of wine on a nearby chest of drawers and grabbing her around her waist, pulling her to him. Pressing their bodies close together, he brought his lips to her neck and kissed her roughly, biting down against her soft flesh.

For a brief moment, the Muscovite melted into his arms, enjoying the sensation of his lips ravishing her skin passionately for the first time. Then, through the pink clouds of bliss filling her head, the warnings of both her religion and her fearsome mother came drifting back to her. She didn't want to, she feared ruining their relationship, but from somewhere deep inside her conscience, she found the strength to pull away slightly.

His arms gripped her tightly and he moved to pull her in again. "Francis..." She protested weakly. At first, he assumed she was simply moaning as his games had the desired effect. Then he sensed something was wrong and stopped, loosening his grip and looking at her with concern.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm...I'm not ready to go this far. I'm sorry," She admitted, still upset that she might be ruining their relationship as she pulled away from him again, looking distressed.

He let her go, "Don't be sorry, I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I will respect you and your boundaries, I promise," He told her, suddenly serious again. For all he wanted to push her a little, breaking through the serious shell, he knew when to stop.

"Thank you," She showed her relief, smiling a little.

"Not a problem. Besides," He seized his bottle of wine again, "We can still have a fun night together, oui?"

"Of course," She answered happily. The rest of the evening was spent cuddling and chatting on the couch, learning more about one another in between sips of wine. France eventually fell asleep on the couch and, draping a blanket over him, Nastasya crept away to her bed.

When morning dawned, there was a lot going on. For starters, Inna, Ivan and Raivis were rushing out of the door, bound for the airport, with Natalya endlessly shouting 'I love you' to Ivan and 'Be safe!' To Inna and Ilya waving at everyone energetically from the doorstep.

The three personifications had to hurry to the airport and board their plane. The flight, three and a half hours long, was boring and uneventful. Inna fell asleep, while Ivan passed the time by amusing himself. The main way he found to do this was by kicking the back of Raivis's seat, then pretending that he was also asleep when the other man turned around.

Eventually, though, this long, tedious flight was over and they, having collected their luggage and got through the relevant procedure, headed to Switzerland's house. Russia knocked on the door and Liechtenstein opened it, greeting them all with a smile. "Oh, hallo! Come in, I'll just get Big Brother for you," She told him as she waved them all inside.

Vash didn't take too long to appear, and he and Ivan disappeared off somewhere to talk about whatever business they were arranging, leaving the younger personifications to their party. Lilly led the newcomers into another room, where many of the younger Nations and Micronations were already gathered. They appeared to be having a simple tea party, and for a while, that was all the event was. It was still fairly fun and pretty relaxing though.

But then Hong Kong got bored and announced, "This party's getting kinda lame..." Before grinning and asking, "You know what would be cooler?"

Latvia, who was unfortunate enough to be listening at the time, made the mistake of asking, "What?"

"If we play some funny games, y'know, like truth or dare, or spin the bottle," The other suggested. The Latvian shook his head doubtfully, and that might have been the end of the subject, had some others not been listening in as well.

Seborga, who had spent most of the night flirting with an aloof Monaco, sensed a new opportunity. "Spin the bottle sounds fun," He agreed with a grin.

Sealand appeared to be bouncing off the walls with chaotic energy for some unknown reason today, and decided to third the motion by shouting, "Yeah! Screw the bossy people, let's play adult games for a change!" Then, before anyone was able to protest, grabbed a juice bottle for them to play with and started hassling others into joining a circle of players.

The game began and kisses were passed around, causing the once-calm party to descend into laughing, whistling and shrieking as Liechtenstein kissed Iceland, Iceland tried to kiss Wy, who didn't want to be kissed, smacked him on the nose then spun the bottle herself. When it landed on Seborga, she just glared at the Italian boy until he got the message and spun it himself without attempting to get the kiss.

Seborga got overly excited when he nearly got Monaco, sending up another rowdy cheer, but wasn't too disappointed to have to kiss Seychelles instead. The bottle kept spinning and the game continued...

Elsewhere in the house, Ivan and Vash had finished the business, which had involved the purchasing of some guns, and had moved on to some shared pastimes of theirs: Discussing the antics of their Little Sisters, who both had histories of being clingy, though in very different ways, with one being a lot easier to deal with than the other. They were also making the most of the peace and quiet and knitting together while they talked.

Then shrieking sounds began to make their way out of the party room, and the two overprotective relatives glanced up at one another, both having similar dramatically worried thoughts about what may be happening to Inna and Lilly. Discarding their knitting, they grabbed a gun each and started running.

The door to the room of the party burst in and revealed Ivan and Vash, looking ballistic and brandishing guns...Just as Latvia and Minsk were about to kiss. Russia's roaring alerted everyone's attention to the fact that the party, kissing games and all, was well and truly over.

After all three of those involved in the trip had, in their own private ways, been traumatised by the party, the trip was cut quite short, with the hotel booking being cancelled and emergency tickets designed to get them home again that same day. As they waited to go home, they all had a lot to think about.

Inna was left mortified that her father had burst into the first real 'grown-up' party she had ever been to, not to mention on her first kiss, and frightened all her friends by waving a gun around like some sort of lunatic. And also, privately, a tiny bit love-struck by the experience of her first kiss, even if it had only happened thanks to some stupid game.

Raivis was mildly terrified by the idea of how Russia was going to react to the fact that last time they had seen one other, he had been kissing his daughter, of whom he was notoriously protective. And also slightly curious as to what Inna was thinking about that kiss. Maybe it had only been part of a silly party game to her, but he couldn't deny harbouring secret - at least hopefully secret from her parents - feelings for her since they had met.

And Ivan was outwardly livid that the person he had assigned to keep his precious daughter safe from any and all potential party perils had done so by, as part of one of the games he had been absolutely sure he _didn't_ want Inna to play, kissing her. And also, inwardly, a little sad that now _both_ of his daughters were obviously grown up, no longer his darling babies and no longer so easy for him to protect...


	22. Love Issues Strike Again

After yet another, long, tedious flight, this time with the added bonus that everyone was still in a bad mood, the group had to go through another run through the airport procedures, made even more complicated by the guns Ivan had brought with him this time. Then, finally, they were safely back in Russia.

Which, from Ivan's point of view, meant that, now there was no danger of starting a fight in someone else's house, or in the airport, where it would be messy, noisy, rude and potentially illegal, that they could discuss the events of the earlier party in peace as they walked back to the house.

He began with the ever so tactful question, "So what exactly is going on between you two?" While glaring at Latvia in a way that implied there was one particular acceptable answer, that being 'nothing', and any other one may result in a murder.

Inna and Raivis looked at one another awkwardly, both still pretty embarrassed about the kiss, or at least about getting caught kissing, themselves and not very sure of how best to answer that question.

Then the Belarusian girl grabbed Latvia's hand and started sprinting away from her father, abandoning her luggage in the street with the irritated Russian man in the process.

This unexpected move helped with absolutely nothing, as the young Belarusian woman was now speeding through the busy streets of Moscow, dragging a confused Latvian, who was fearfully trying to check for angry pursuing Russians over his shoulder as they ran, behind her. Bouncing off people and muttering apologies in between curses, she tried to think of somewhere safer they could get to.

Meanwhile, the only reason Russia wasn't chasing them was that he now had all the luggage to deal with and wasn't prepared to abandon it in the middle of the street. Muttering angrily to himself, he started to carry it home, resolving to enlist Natalya's help in tracking down the two runaways when he arrived. The Belarusian woman purposely kept trackers to make sure she knew where all her family members were...And it was usually Inna's running away antics that mandated their use.

At least that meant it wouldn't be too much of a shock to Natalya to hear that their youngest daughter had vanished again, although no doubt she would be angry when she got the full account of the business trip and the coinciding party. Ivan shuddered slightly, not looking forward to facing an irate Natalya. Well...He could rest assured that, no matter what happened, his adoring wife would never be angry with _him._

She just might never let Inna leave the house ever again and, if he didn't get there first, murder Latvia. But the Russian man was prepared to accept those as consequences of the outing.

Inna and Raivis, on the other hand, would rather _not_ deal with that kind of consequence, which was probably one of the reasons why they had run away. But Inna also had other motives behind her attempt to escape from her overprotective father. She also thought there needed to be a conversation about what exactly their relationship was after the way that kiss had made her feel, but also had to acknowledge that having that conversation in her father's presence would only lead to trouble.

So she had taken matters into her own hands and pelted off into the crowded City of Moscow, dragging Latvia behind her. It hadn't been very successful. While they _had_ got away from Russia, they were now in the middle of a busy street, both breathless and tired, having run into several people and fallen over on multiple occasions.

"This isn't going well, is it?" She asked, admitting defeat as she looked around.

"Umm...I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but I don't think so," He replied as he followed her gaze and weighed up the situation they had got themselves into.

Inna's eyes fell on a familiar street corner and she instantly knew where to go and what to do to fix the problems she had given herself. "Never mind, I'll sort it out!" She declared, before seizing hold of his hand again and breaking into a run, tugging him after her with no other explanation.

Blissfully unaware of the shenanigans her family members had been busy getting themselves into, Nastasya had enjoyed another day with her boyfriend. Francis had woken up on the couch around the same as she had woken up, and, after she had got dressed, they sat down to breakfast together. Then, in the process of finding a way to bond and have fun together while getting to know one another, she had attempted to get him to play some of her favourite games with her.

It was actually going surprisingly well. She hadn't been sure that the often flamboyant Frenchman would settle well to the more serious, or as Inna always called them, 'boring' games she liked to play. But she was beginning to learn that Francis had both his cheery side and a more serious side.

Apart from one flirtatious joke about making the game of poker 'strip poker', he had been serious about playing cards and chess with her, and happily, she had been able to enjoy a quiet day of games, with a partner who didn't cheat for once. Ilya and Inna were both inclined to 'liven up' the game with their own rules, but together, she and Francis had simply peacefully played for hours.

Then there was a frantic knocking at the door. She sighed and got up, walking off to investigate with her handful of cards still in her hand. Having played with so many cheaters, she was in the habit of never leaving them unattended.

The Russian woman yanked open the door and was hit by a flying Latvian as her sister shoved him into her apartment and bundled herself in as well. "Don't ask questions right now, Siastra, I don't have time to explain!" Inna told her as a baffled Nastasya opened her mouth to speak. That warning issued, she only had one more thing to say, "We need to borrow your bathroom," She announced.

The word 'What?' rushed to Moscow's lips, very closely followed by the word 'Why?', but seeing her sister's face, she bit them back. This was obviously important to Inna, and though they didn't always see eye to eye and weren't as close as they had once been, she loved her Little Sister and wanted to support her in her time of need.

"Sure," She shrugged, beckoning them through the living room and showing them to the bathroom. The mildly embarrassed teens slunk into the room together and shut the door behind them. Nastasya raised her eyebrows at the closed door, wondering what on Earth had happened now in the drama of her family life, and then turned back to Francis.

He wiggled his eyebrows in a comically suggestive manner, "They want to share a bathroom, huh?" He commented. His girlfriend dropped her cards face down onto the table before swiping at him half-playfully, half-warningly.

"Don't tease. Inna's seriously bothered about something, I guess whatever's going on is important," She told him in scolding tones.

He laughed and caught her arm as she attempted to hit him, kissing her hand playfully before looking up at her and answering, "Oui, I know young love when I see it. And it always has it's teething troubles. At least you're giving them space to work it out."

The younger couple were currently in the process of 'working it out'. As soon as Inna had shut the bathroom door behind her, She turned to the Latvian boy and demanded, "Kiss me again."

He turned crimson but didn't really feel inclined to object. The second kiss, more planned than the first accidental part of the party games, lingered for a little while, with the Belarusian girl wrapping her arms around him as soon as their lips connected and reciprocating.

When they finally parted, he caught his breath and managed to ask, "Why did you want me to do that again?"

"That's a bit of a stupid question, isn't it?" Inna asked with a bit of a smirk. She didn't think she had been subtle about her feelings, having wanted to get everything sorted out simply and swiftly. But his response amused her.

"I guess so," He replied with a soft smile.

"Then are we done here?" The Belarusian woman asked. When the response was a nod, she took his hand and walked out of the bathroom, re-joining her sister. "Thanks for the time and the bathroom, Siastra. But I think we should probably go home now before Papa rams your door down to find us," She said by way of greeting to Nastasya.

The Russian woman looked up from where she had been balanced on France's lap happily, their earlier game of cards abandoned now, and shook her head, tutting. "Nyet, not quite so fast, Sestra. You're welcome, but even so...I think I'm owed an explanation," She said. The implication that her father was annoyed enough to knock her door down about whatever had happened, combined with the circumstances of the young couple's arrival, made her suspect something serious had happened.

In the meantime, Ivan had arrived back at his home with a lot of luggage and a very bad mood to deal with. He had dumped the cases in the hallway and stalked off to find Natalya. That hadn't taken too long, since the clingy Belarusian woman had been somewhat paranoid and obsessive during the whole trip, given that this time, it was not only her Beloved Big Brother that she was separated from but her daughter and Capital City as well.

She was sitting in the living room, staring at her phone as she waited for news from the absent Russian man when he walked in. Looking up, Natalya gasped and jumped up, running to Ivan's arms instantly. After she pulled him into a tight embrace and kissed him, she pulled back enough to regard him with curiosity and mild suspicion.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Vanya, Darling, but why are you home so early? And where are the others?" She demanded to know, worry about her daughter kicking in as she noted that Ivan was missing his earlier companions.

Both Inna and her father had to spill out the same tale at the same time, although they told it differently, with Russia's account being a good deal more rant-like than his daughter's, and less aware of the actual facts of Lilly's party.

Once the story was told in its entirety, both audiences mobilised as quickly as they possibly could to 'fix things', as they saw it. For an incensed Belarus, that consisted of grabbing a handful of knives, ready to attack her younger daughter's new boyfriend, and then checking her tracking details to locate the runaway teenagers.

When she realised Inna was at Nastasya's house, she calmed down a little bit. That, at least, meant she hadn't seriously run away, as she had when she had fled to Belgium and wasn't likely to be in any danger. Plus she wasn't far away, so collecting her would be easy.

For Nastasya, the mobilising took a different form. In the interest of keeping all her family members happen and _not_ having her protective and decidedly easy to irritate parents descend on her home and murder her sister's boyfriend, she started to organise things. "Right, I will take you home then," She told Inna, before turning on Raivis, "And we will have to find somewhere to take you where you're not going to get stabbed by Mama," She added.

Personally, she didn't care either way about any potential murders her parents wished to commit so long as they didn't happen on her pristine magnolia carpets, but Inna would be angry if her boyfriend was murdered and she didn't want another reason for her volatile family to fight.

Francis intervened to help out, probably also not wanting to wish to see his girlfriend's slightly frightening relatives having a fight, "He can take my hotel room, it's booked for a few more days and I can always sleep here again," He suggested. This arrangement agreed, a grateful Inna decided not to mention any of this to her father, especially not the part about Nastasya having her boyfriend sleep over. Ivan would be livid enough next time she saw him, anyway...

He was, as was Natalya. When their daughters turned up at their house, they were just stuffing a number of weapons into their car to set off to Nastasya's place. Fortunately for Inna, her sister bundled her hastily into the house and then stayed for a little while, talking in an uncharacteristically upbeat manner about any random rubbish that popped into her head until she managed to calm her parents down and find an opening in which to hurry back to her nice, quiet apartment and to Francis.

Away from the chaos and the narrowly averted family crisis.


	23. Happily Ever After?

Though there had been a few days of pure chaos for the Braginsky/Braginskaya family, once those days had passed, peace returned.

Belarus and Russia gave up on their intention of murdering Latvia for the circumstances surrounding the beginning of his relationship with Minsk. In any case, the Latvian boy had finally returned to his own home after having it rebuilt, and was more or less out of harm's way, though he kept in touch with his girlfriend as much as possible.

Francis also headed home, promising Nastasya that they would stay in touch as well, and the Muscovite, no longer wanting a private place to spend time without her family's knowledge, returned to the family home.

A few months passed fairly uneventfully, taking them smoothly through to July. The month of Iryna and Emma's wedding. Everything was already planned out, thanks to Natalya getting zealously invested in it from the beginning, and so Ukraine arranged to fly home.

The wedding was happening in Kiev, partly because Iryna dreaded the idea of getting her whole family to travel, in the various emotional states that were bound to occur on the day, to Brussels, and partly as a special 'Screw you' to her own Government, who refused to legally recognise regular same-sex weddings, but would have to recognise hers, as she was a Nation.

This meant that she was heading home again, and since she hadn't seen any of her family members since the occasion of Inna's running away to Belgium, she felt as though, while she was in that area of the World, she should visit them.

So Ivan and Natalya had arranged to pick their Big Sister up from a nearby airport when she arrived in Russia, have her stay a few days, then drive her back to Kiev for last-minute preparations and then, finally, the wedding.

The evening before they would be picking her up, Belarus, aware that they had to leave early in the morning to collect the Ukrainian woman from the airport when she arrived and also thoroughly tired out after months of wedding planning, went to bed early.

That night, her mind was occupied by some very unusual dreams.

* * *

 _In Nastasya's apartment, the Russian woman was busily sorting through a pile of papers, scattering them all around her in the process. From a nearby couch, Francis watched her, looking very puzzled. Eventually, he asked, "Ma_ _Chérie, what are you doing?"_

 _"Looking for our invitations to Inna's wedding..." She muttered, "When I was getting ready for the meeting the other week they got mixed up with the paperwork," She explained further when he continued to look baffled by her methods for finding them and where she was looking._

 _The Frenchman rolled his eyes, impatient. The Muscovite had been 'working' on one thing or another for ages now. Either she was taking her father's place at the meetings or she was helping her sister arrange her wedding. He loved her, but he had been hoping they would get a little bit of time to just relax and cuddle together. "Don't worry about it...Surely we don't need invitations? You're the Matron of Honour and her_ sister, _for God's sake! And I'm your husband," He pointed out, trying to get her to abandon the venture._

 _"It should still be done properly, though," She insisted, rather typically, as she knocked some more papers onto the floor._

 _Francis got up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her away from the heap of papers that she was so intent on spreading all over the place, "Trust me, Darling, It doesn't matter," He told her. "Just relax for a bit, oui?" He added, trying to calm her down._

 _"Why should I trust_ you? _You were the one who stood in the way of our love..." Nastasya argued back. But he could see the hint of a hidden smile pulling at the corners of her mouth and knew that she was just teasing him again. This was what they always did. And bringing up the troubled start of their feelings for one another was one of her favourite games..._

 _He hit back, "Well, someone had to be sensible when you were crazy. And now you're being crazy again..."_

 _"I'm never crazy," The Russian woman countered, pouting and glaring at him until she couldn't hold back and keep up the pretence anymore. She started to laugh, then threw her arms around him, "Except maybe about you...Alright, you win. I'll stop and spend time with you instead," She conceded, moments before Francis pressed his lips to hers._

* * *

Natalya briefly awoke, sitting up and looking around. The room was dark, but she could make out her husband lying beside her and, if she squinted carefully, the calendar by her bed. The date was still, as she had expected, shortly before her sister's wedding day. Neither of her daughters were married. One of them was far too young and neither of them had been in their current relationships for longer than a few months.

So it must have simply been an odd dream, brought on by the stress of wedding planning, she told herself, laying back down to sleep.

* * *

 _Inna was running around an unfamiliar house in a veil, jeans and Raivis's jacket. She also only appeared to be wearing one shoe and was greatly hindered in her running around by the fact that it was a high heeled one. Swearing loudly, she staggered up some stairs and called out her fiancé's name._

 _The Latvian's head appeared over the railing at the top of the stairs and he smiled softly at the sight of her. "You look beautiful in that veil," He told her._

 _The Belarusian woman scowled ungratefully, "I don't_ feel _beautiful," She muttered crossly. "And the dress still hasn't arrived. Big Sister_ promised _she ordered me one," She complained._

 _He looked concerned at that news, "It_ is _going to turn up, isn't it?"_

 _"I don't know! And now I've lost my other shoe..." There was more general grumpiness from Minsk. She hadn't been expecting this wedding to be so stressful. That was the whole point of letting her sister plan it. She wasn't a 'wedding' kind of person. The idea of getting married suited her just fine, but not the part with the flowers and dresses...Moscow had handled that for her and she had resigned herself to enduring a wedding that her sister considered 'beautiful' for the sake of getting married._

 _Now she was well and truly fed up of the whole thing. And it hadn't happened yet. She sighed and pulled the veil off, dropping it onto the floor. Then an idea occurred to her. "Shall we just elope? I'm fed up of this wedding business..."_

 _That was obviously a surprising suggestion and at first, Raivis looked shocked, then paused to consider the idea. "Well, if that's what you want. It'd probably be less stressful. But your family murder me," He answered at long last._

 _Inna rolled her eyes, "Oh, who cares what they think so long as we get to get married? We ran away before, remember, and Papa didn't murder anyone that time," She answered._

* * *

Belarus opened her eyes again. It was still dark, though if she peered through a gap in the curtains, she could see the faint light as the sun began to rise on the distant horizon. She rolled over, shutting out the light, and curled up against Ivan's side, eventually falling asleep again.

* * *

 _Ilya chuckled softly as he read the letter his eldest sister had sent to him. Gabi looked up, sipping their coffee then questioning, "What's amusing you?"_

 _"'Stasya's still annoyed about Inna's wedding," He relayed. He always seemed to find Moscow's irritation entertaining. "She did all that arranging of things and Inna ran off and got married somewhere else instead," He sniggered._

 _"I remember that...Pssh, weddings are such a waste of time anyway._ I'm _never getting married," The other rolled their eyes as they spoke disdainfully about the whole idea of marriage._

 _The Russian man looked over the table at them for a while and then nodded, smiling a little bit, "I don't think I will, either," He concluded. "We can just...Make do with one another, da?"_

 _"Ja, I guess so," Gabi shrugged in response._

* * *

"Sestra, Sestra!" Someone was calling to Natalya, jogging her arm repeatedly. "It's time to get up, da? We need to be ready when Big Sister gets home," The Belarusian opened her eyes to hear Russia explain as she took in her Beloved Big Brother standing over her.

He stopped talking as he saw the disorientated look on her face, "Are you alright, Bela?" He questioned. It wasn't like Natalya to sleep in late, and even less like her to look so confused upon seeing him.

A slow smile spread over her face, her eyes lighting up as she reflected on the premonitions if that was what they were. Well...It seemed like all her children would be happy in the adult World one day, with their significant others, whoever they were and however those relationships were defined, by their sides to keep them company. So it would all work out fine in the end...

She sat up and kissed his cheek softly, "Everything's fine, Darling Vanya. Let's get ready," She answered, swinging her legs out of the bed and getting out. She grabbed her clothes from the wardrobe and started to dress.

A few minutes later, they were ready and on the way to the airport. It wasn't a long drive and they soon got there to find Iryna walking out to meet them. After sharing hugs and catching up, they got back the car and headed home again.

Now she knew her offspring would all get their own 'happily ever after' stories, and she had her own, all that remained, in Belarus's view, was her sister's wedding. And it was drawing nearer now...


	24. Iryna's Wedding (Epilogue)

When the morning of the wedding finally dawned, Iryna got up early in the morning to get ready and was soon joined by her bridesmaids, there to help her out. Natalya and Nastasya were already in their dresses, with Inna looking a lot more comfortable in a matching jumpsuit of Liechtenstein's creation.

Belarus was also carrying a large cake box, which she dumped on the coffee table. After her sister was ready for the wedding, they still had to sort her place out for the party afterwards. Privately, the Belarusian woman was wondering how that would go. The modest little farmhouse on the outskirts of Kiev was fine for Iryna's daily life, but there wouldn't be a lot of room for all the party guests she had invited. Ivan _had_ offered to host the reception instead, as their house was bigger, but Ukraine had wanted it to be in her own home.

Either way, she vowed to make it work out _perfectly_ for her sister's sake. So she instructed her daughters to start putting up the decorations they had brought with them while she and Iryna retreated to the Ukrainian's bedroom to get the bride dressed and prepared.

Iryna was already tearfully happy and gratefully hugged her sister, "Thank you, Sestra! For all your help. I think this really is going to be the happiest day of my life!" She gushed.

"You're welcome. That's all I want," Natalya answered, before crossing to her sister's wardrobe, where the Ukrainian woman's wedding dress was hanging on the door. It had been hung there ever since it had arrived a few weeks ago, so the Belarusian woman brushed some dust off it and straightened out the layers of white silk that made up the ballroom-style skirt. "Are you ready to put it on, Sestra?" She asked as she saw her emotional elder sibling biting her lip, holding back more happy tears.

"Honestly? I've been waiting to try it on for _weeks_ now!" Iryna admitted excitedly. So Natalya took the dress down off its hanger and helped her sister slide into it. While Iryna gazed at her reflection in the mirror and cried joyfully as she realised that it really was her big day today, Natalya hunted out the box of accessories that had come with the dress.

Eventually, she pulled it out of the bottom of the wardrobe and opened it, starting to pass items to Iryna. When she was finally dressed, they went back downstairs to find the lower storey of the house was pretty much covered in streamers and balloons, courtesy of Nastasya and Inna. Now, the girls were dragging food out of Iryna's kitchen and arranging it on the table with the cake, which had been de-boxed and put on a plate on the main, bigger table now.

With everything in the house and all of Ukraine's bridal party prepared, that left the case of getting to the venue and actually having the wedding. Ivan had been hanging around outside, not wanting to get mixed up in the feminine World of wedding dresses and happy tears that were inevitably happening in the house, but, when they emerged, first hugged his Big Sister because she looked beautiful and overjoyed, then began the drive to the church.

Meanwhile, Emma and her bridesmaids had finished similar preparations at the Hotel Emma had been staying in prior to the wedding and bundled into Luxembourg's car to make their way to the venue as well.

The two vehicles drew up outside the church at about the same time. Both brides were helped out by their younger brothers and joined shortly afterwards by their bridal parties.

Ivan took Iryna's arm with a little smile, while Luxembourg walked with Emma, and they began to make their way down the aisle. Inside, all the guests had turned up and were waiting for the wedding to begin. Quite literally the whole World was there, as Natalya had insisted on inviting all the Nations to Iryna's wedding, then threatening them into coming, just in case their presence or lack thereof would distress or disappoint her 'Dear Sister'.

The two bridal parties reached the altar and stopped. Russia and Luxembourg traded glanced and stepped back to let their sisters exchange their vows. A priest, who was rather baffled about why he was performing a ceremony that was technically illegal but nevertheless conscious of the impatient Belarusian Maid of Honour, who had been to see him and threatened him into performing the wedding in the first place and was not someone he remembered fondly, glowering at him over one of the brides' shoulder, stepped forward and decided to get things started, getting the two women through their vows.

When the ceremony was, at last, over, Emma flew into Iryna's arms and the newly married couple enjoyed a kiss, sealing their marriage, before heading out again for their photoshoot.

Part of this involved photos with their families, which consisted of the Netherlands looking mildly stoned in the background while Saint Petersburg pulled ridiculous faces. Luxembourg and Russia, who had earlier been helping out by giving their elder sisters away, were now standing beside the two women with expressions that were somewhere between proud and trying not to cry. Belarus and Moscow had both perfected a deadpan expression and Minsk was attempting a normal family photo and actually smiling.

It didn't help, but Iryna and Emma were so happy to be married that they put up with it. They also had to put up with Moscow elbowing her Little Sister out of the way during the bouquet toss and grabbing the flowers, making Ivan and Natalya instantly start glaring at Francis, then, later on at the reception, with Ivan getting very, very drunk and dancing on Ukraine's coffee table. And also with Natalya, probably having had too many Vodkas as well, deciding to sing, or slur, a song she had written about her 'Beloved siblings' for the occasion, which started off as a nice, sweet song about what Iryna had done for her and ended up as a rant about her love for Ivan. _Another one._

But they _did_ put up with all of it. They had found their way to live happily ever after at last.


End file.
